XXXI – Clash


The cab stopped in front of the hotel and Light paid for his ride. When he took off, the man drove a few meters away and called someone. "I found the hotel. What do you want me to do now?"

'Return. You will find a blonde at one of the tables in the back wearing a transparent black shirt. Tell her the location.'

"What about my wife?" the driver asked, as calm as he possibly could.

'First, the location. She is on the train, still alive. I haven't used the gas yet, but perhaps it might leak enough to kill the weak and sick… Who knows?' the voice laughed through the speaker from the other end of the line. 'Perhaps your wife will breathe easy.'

Growling, the cab driver cursed the other in his mind. "Ten minutes, or I could say it right now."

'Ah, impatient, aren't we…? But I'm afraid you are not the one setting the rules. Five minutes, or the gas will start leaking.' After that, the other hung up and left the driver to work his way through the crowded city.

Just then, Light took the elevator to the top floor. Caterina was waiting at the door, her arms crossed over her chest. The bodyguards were watching him like unanimated statues.

"Finally. What took you so long?" the girl asked, stepping aside to welcome him.

"Busy streets. What is all this about?" All this time, Ryuk was looking around, grinning to himself and passing through walls. After the shinigami had toured the apartment, he returned besides Light.

Sighing, Caterina threw herself on her armchair. "Were you followed?"

"No," he quickly answered her. "Why so paranoid? What have you done?"

The girl looked at him, obviously against his accusing tone, but decided it was only a stress reaction. "I bet everything on Shin. I sent him with a really good offer to meet with whoever made him the first offer, talk the details, pretend he goes along and return to me."

"So…?" Light asked, taking a seat across from her and shamelessly leaning into the armchair he always saw her father occupied. "If you made him such a good offer, he should be a safe bet."

"Should," she repeated. "He's a coward. I haven't thought about it before, but I saw him when he talked to my father. If someone threatens him, he will lose his head… Literally or figuratively, neither is to my advantage."

At the corner of his eye, Light saw Ryuk going outside through the glass wall and flying off somewhere. It worried him, but he couldn't let that show. "How do we know of his progress?"

"That's the biggest problem," Caterina mumbled. "We don't."

It wasn't even that dark yet, but Light felt his darker side taking over in a more powerful way than usual. The situation was too dangerous for the two sides of him to allow his weaker self to handle it. Unfortunately though, that was exactly what was about to happen to Shin.

With his heart trembling in anticipation and fear, the teenager finally saw a hooded man approaching him just as the sun was going down. He was slender, in jeans and a loose shirt, a cigarette in his mouth. Shin saw the other's hands were yellowish with swollen, blue veins, and bruises around the knuckles.

"So, are you in?" the stranger asked as soon as he reached him.

Nervous, Shin nodded. "I don't want to do this… but I need the money. You said she will be fine, right? It's just a talk."

"Yeah," came the short answer.

"So…?" Shin asked, uncertain.

"You see, my boss has a way of getting what he wants. Do you know these two?" The stranger showed Shin a picture of two small children sharing the same wavy black hair, tied up on two chairs and with a cloth covering their eyes. They looked bruised and with a few scratches, but otherwise fine. However, it was enough to stop their brother's breath.

Shin grabbed the other by the collar. "Where are they?!"

Grinning, the stranger loaded his gun and pointed it towards Shin's stomach. "Easy now, I'm only the messenger. So, are you in?"

Backing away, Shin held up his hands. His sky was falling down, but he had to keep calm. "…If anyone touches them again, I swear…!"

"Look," the skinny man began, "I'm not supposed to say this, but my boss is a reasonable man. Give him what he wants and nobody dies. That's a good second offer – take my word for it. Others kill for less."

Ryuk didn't need much to see someone with the name 'Shin' above his head looking quite troubled and about to make a dangerous decision. The numbers showing his lifespan were changing as he was making up his mind. The death god grinned, feeling a rush of excitement as he followed him and the other one into a tiny, dark, smoky bar that seemed to be a lot larger in the back. The boys sat at the table of a woman who had come all the way from Europe – it was obvious by her name and face.

"This is the kid," the hooded one spoke, taking off his hood. Ryuk read his name and his lifespan. He was growing impatient to see how he will be spending his last moments.

"Do you know what you have to do?" Bianca asked him, looking bored and feeling more than a little careless. Now certain the Snake didn't value her life and with her illusions exposed, the woman decided to dedicate herself to avenging her uncle. If that meant manipulating teenagers, she couldn't care less. Anything went, as long as it helped her take another step towards her final goal.

"Bring her here," Shin answered quietly. He was terrified of what might happen to his little brothers. All the years spent working his hands to the bone meant nothing without the twins and all of his sacrifices were about to blow up in smoke. "What else?"

"I ask the questions. Sit down." As soon as Bianca finished, the boy took a seat across the table. "I want you to text the girl right now. If she doesn't reply right away, call her. Ask her out and invent some reason so she won't be able to refuse."

A couple of seconds later, Caterina saw her phone light up. Unlocking it, she froze.

"…What is it?" Light asked.

"Shin. He wants us to meet."

Kira frowned. Since when does that loser have her number? But perhaps it was a necessity at the time. "Does he say where or when?"

"Yes. It's an address in the bad quarter. He says I can take a cab and he will pay for it, that he's had a terrible day and he wants a shoulder and stuff like that."

Light took her phone from her and read the long message. This was obviously a set up. Strangely enough though, there was the number 7 apparently misspelled at the end of the text. "…If you read every seventh word, it says 'leave now will blow'… Caterina, where is your father?" he asked as soon as he figured it out.

"What?! But I don't know that!" Looking around for a moment, the girl tried to come up with a plan. It was already 10 p.m.

"Reply," Light told her. "You wanted this, so here – play along."

Caterina looked at him for a moment, then typed a positive reply. "Done. Now what?"

"…Aren't you the devil's little princess?" Kira grinned. "He will save you, no matter what, so now we go to that address and find Shin and his venomous friend."

Glaring at him and about to slap him for his sudden and uncalled for dose of cruelty, Caterina held back her anger and ran to get the money she kept in her room for emergencies. In less than a minute, they were both running out of the hotel as the bodyguards were watching them silently. Some were suspicious, but they had been given strict orders to remain there no matter what.

Caterina saw a cab already waiting in front of the hotel and Light's eyes went wide. "He brought me here," he mumbled as they ran towards the car.

"And you're telling me this now?" she asked under her breath just before opening the door and hopping in. The girl was about to take out her phone and announce her father when someone from the passenger seat pointed a gun at her.

"Set that little toy down, princess," the man grinned. Immediately, Caterina turned pale. She recognized him as flashes returned to her mind of the burning motel, of her threatened in a foreign car, of how she kneeled one of her kidnappers and jumped out of the car in the middle of a highway. Slowly, the girl set her phone beside her. "Down, on the floor," the man specified and she complied, setting her phone on the rubber rug at her feet.

Light hesitated for a moment, but fled right before the cab left in a rush. If he wanted to become the god of a new world, he couldn't afford risking his own life. Instead, he ran straight to the police station with the car plate number and the address in mind.

The Snake was watching through the cameras how Bianca handled the situation. She had talked to the cab driver a couple of minutes before and sent one other man with him. Now, she was talking to the trembling, pale teenager. His blonde looked colder than ever, her green eyes empty of any hint of emotion. Perhaps she wasn't as useless as he first thought…

At the station, Kira found most of the officers and agents were off duty, so he rushed into his father's office. Thankfully, his father was still there. The police chief was trying to anticipate L's proof for claiming Kira was in Japan. As soon as he heard the door, the man closed the files and looked up.

"Light?! What happened?" It was clear enough by his fast breathing and red eyes that something was seriously wrong.

"…Remember I said Caterina feared she was in danger? It's happening. The hotel, it blew up. She's held captive. I know the address, the plate number… A taxi picked her up. She got a text. I don't know where her father is. You have to send a team there right now. It's in that quarter – I bet it's a big fish." His young mind was ravished by a thousand thoughts shared by his sides as they were contradicting each other over what he should say first.

Frightened to see his calm and composed child acting that way, the man stood up immediately. "Alright. Take a seat, calm down. I'll send a team right away!"

"Her dad… I've got to tell him!" Light protested as his father pushed him from his shoulders towards a chair. "I have to contact him. It will get ugly if we don't inform him right now."

Nodding, the man sat his son down. "Fine, but first I'll send the team. Try to calm down now and we will talk later."

In the mean time, the Dragon was just making his way out through the flames. His best men were all waiting in the parking lot – about ten tall, bulky gorillas all dressed in black and with their faces covered. He left the coat of his suit behind, disgusted by the ashes covering it and slowly burning holes into the fabric. If his girl was still alive and well, he couldn't tell for certain. The only thing that he could tell was that he was more than glad to accept the war declaration of the Snake, even more so when he dared to use his preferred method of assault.

Back at the bar, the Snake was watching the fireworks through a surveillance camera of a restaurant across the street. He was grinning widely, leaning back into his armchair. "Yes… I'm glad you didn't burn like a rat – I'd much rather skin you alive and watch you writhe!" He wanted to join the action, but was aware that was too risky while in his situation. A lifetime of watching the action developing on a TV screen instead of living it first-hand was the price he had to pay for his past mistakes.

Bianca was waiting, already tired of chatting with the cowardly teenager. "You can imagine I am not the one behind this, but you annoy me and nobody said I should keep you alive," the blonde glared at him.

When Caterina was escorted in the back, she saw Shin all pale and shaking, his eyes red and his lips thinner than usual. He looked ten years older, terrified of even breathing the wrong way. He had Bianca's gun pressed to his temple and he was silently begging Caterina to get him out.

The kidnapper had tied the girl's hands together and was dragging her along using the rope as a leash. "What's that, Liz?" he grinned, stealing the nickname their superior sometimes used.

"He annoys me. Was that necessary?" the blonde asked about Caterina. "And where is the other one?"

"He got away. We will find him, don't worry," the man said as he sat Caterina on a chair. "What now, boss? Is she mine yet, or do you want her first?" he asked aloud, looking at the camera in the corner and grinning proudly.

'Idiot! Find her boyfriend before he calls the police on us, you retard! Do I have to tell you every single time? Clean up your own mess before I clean out your worthless life!' the Snake hissed through the speakers.

Making a face of pure disappointment and disgust, the man dragged his feet out. "Right… Try to keep the princess awake 'til I'm back. She's got a favor to pay me."

Grinning, Caterina made up her mind to go down in a memorable way. If that was it, she didn't want to die like some scared damsel in distress. "Don't take too long, baby. I just might go up in flames," she called after her kidnapper.

"What was that?" he turned back, surprised by the girl's sudden change of attitude.

"Can anyone bring me a drink? I can't do this when I'm sober. Will you bring me something?" she asked the man on a pleading tone, fluttering her eyelids and smiling widely.

'Do your fucking job!' the Snake yelled.

"…Fine, fine, I'm going. Do you want the boy alive, boss?" the man asked from the doorway.

"Excuse me? I want his heart," Caterina said, making her kidnapper smirk back in return.

All this time, Shin had been too scared to say anything. He was terrified, watching Caterina act in a rather confusing way. He was wondering if the girl was under the influence of some substances because from his perspective, the game she played was much too dangerous for anyone sane and awake to accept.

Ryuk had been watching the scene and after he was done laughing, he eventually decided to return and talk to Light. The shinigami found him before the assassin sent to shut him up, sitting in his father's office with his head in his hands and sighing heavily.

"…Where have you been?" he asked Ryuk as soon as the entity entered the room.

'Out. It took me a while to find you. Why are you here?'

Leaning with his elbows over his knees, Light looked up. "I know you know something. I think it's time you start talking, Ryuk."

'Me…? Maybe,' the death god grinned. 'What do I get if I do?'

Frowning, Light remembered what the creature loved most. "One apple for every useful piece of information."

'Not enough, I'm afraid.'

"Two, then. Will that do? If not, I will stop feeding you any apples for two months."

When Ryuk heard Kira talking, it immediately agreed. 'Two is fine. Two apples for every answer.'

"Then start talking," Kira ordered him in a low voice. Immediately, he stood up and looked through the files of his father. Light hoped the Dragon had the same phone number from a couple of months ago as he sent a text to meet up in ten minutes.

When the man got it, he was surprised. He knew the number from Caterina. At first he wanted to ignore it, but then he thought the boy was rather smart for his age. Inexperienced, of course, but not an idiot. In hope Light would offer him some information, the Dragon drove to the meeting place and called back.

'Yes, sir?' Light answered as soon as his phone rang.

"Two minutes. You better be there," the man ordered him and was rather pleased with the response.

'I am right around the corner, sir. It will take me a few seconds.'

The Dragon hung up and drove faster. He had already tried to contact his little girl, but her not picking up was never a good sign. He knew she was most likely alive, but was too horrified to think of all the things she could possibly experience that would be worse than death. As soon as he reached the place, he stopped the car enough so Light could get in, then drove towards the notorious quarter.

"Good evening, sir. I apologize we had to meet like this," Light said as Ryuk was following them.

"Where is she?" the man asked. There were three other men in the car, all of which Light assumed to be bodyguards, or paid fighters, or both.

"Here," Light said as he handled a piece of paper to the Dragon. To his greatest mistake, it wasn't the paper he would have expected.

Once the man saw the creature grinning in his rearview mirror, his eyes went wide and he nearly crashed into a truck, avoiding the impact at the last minute. "…What in the name of the devil is that hideous thing?!"

Ryuk grinned, pointing a long, slender claw towards himself. 'Can you see me?'

The very same moment, Light's eyes went wide as he understood his mistake. His mind called out for the god he had decided to distrust. "…Sir? Could you please just ignore it?" he asked in a low voice. "I promise to explain, but now Caterina is our greater priority."

Frowning, the man nodded. "…Perhaps my God has had enough of constantly forgiving me. If he had sent the Devil for me, I refuse to go before I see my daughter safe." Taking back his power of concentration, he rushed to the bar of the Snake. He had no time to waste, the teenager was right about that.

Kira took off the moment the car engine stopped. Nobody could really complain about the parking skills of the Dragon, who had pushed a few cars and about ten bodyguards out of his way.

"Orders, Master," one of his three loyal men asked right as the other two were breaking the door open for their employer.

"You three come with me. Do not engage in anything unnecessary. Kill if you need to kill, but do not waste any time. Once inside, my daughter is your priority. Protecting me or anyone else is secondary. Was that clear enough?" the man asked as he led the others down a tight flight of stairs and corridors, following the trace of caged dancers, drunk or drugged youths and the booming vibration of the audio system, blasting something the Dragon had never even imagined people could call music. "If you wish to take anything, you are free to do so on your own account."

Kira looked at Ryuk. "Where are they keeping Caterina?" Needless to say, the Dragon wanted to see the demonic ghost do its thing since it seemed to be on their side, for now.

The Shinigami looked around before pointing to a direction. 'There, in the back. Cross the room and to the right.'

Two of the bodyguards looked at each other strangely, wondering who were their employer and that teenager talking to. They couldn't see anyone in that direction… and that was no surprise. The two had been talking to a lamp on the ceiling from their perspective.

"Hurry up," their leader groaned, pushing his two subordinates forward. Unfortunately though, the crowd was so dense, the five of them were having trouble crossing through. Already annoyed by his not very experienced men, the leader of the three fired a few bullets into the speakers. "Alright, everyone – listen up! Move your asses to the side and nobody dies. If I were you, I'd get the hell out of here in a nice, organized way! So make pairs of two and move towards the exit, if you value what's left of your wasted lives!"

For a few seconds, the crowd went silent. After a while though, a girl began laughing and another few followed. "I'll make a pair with you, big boy!"

Light was looking around in disgust. He had been expecting something alike to what he had seen over a year before when he had met with Caterina and her family at a similar bar. It appeared nighttime was completely different from daytime in the underground.

Annoyed by the shinigami laughing in a mocking way and by the oblivious crowd, the Dragon signed for his bodyguards to free him a corridor. The two began pushing people to one side or the other, shoving them like cattle and shooting anyone who opposed. The third bodyguard was loading his gun, walking close behind Light and the Dragon.

'Well, well, look who's here… Prince charming and the old king decided to join the party!' the Snake laughed through the speakers left still functioning as the five were making their way down the corridor leading to where Bianca was.

"If you have as much as touched her, I will feed you your lungs and turn you inside-out with my bare hands," the Dragon growled, well aware that his former protégé had microphones hidden everywhere. Kira was at least surprised to hear of such ideas, though it made him wonder if the Death Note was capable of making someone torture themselves that way before dying.

'Then please, be my guest!' the Snake laughed again as the floor gave in right underneath the two newer bodyguards. The men fell into a pool of venomous snakes.

"Boss?!" one of them cried. "Master?! S-Sir! Y-y-you won't leave us here, r-right? Right?!"

The other one was losing his mind completely. "Please, get me out of here! I'll do anything, I'll be a slave, I'll sell my life! I don't wanna die! I don't want-!"

Frowning, their leader looked at his employer. With the Dragon turning his back, the man shot dead his two subordinates, along with a few reptiles crawling out of the hole.

'Left,' Ryuk said when the tunnel split. 'I want more apples for this, Light.'

"Apples? Is it possible to buy the loyalty of an imp with apples?" the man asked as his only bodyguard left looked at him like he was nuts.

"It appears this way, sir, though I would much rather see Caterina and I out and alive before bribing the devil," Kira grinned in return.

'Light?' Ryuk began. 'Tell him he can stop calling me a demon anytime. My name is Ryuk and I am getting tired of his appellatives.'

A team of ten armed men were waiting for the Dragon and his company. Light took a step back and watched while the Dragon rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and the only remaining bodyguard threw off his suit coat. What Kira saw next made him reconsider getting rid of the Dragon – he bare-handedly took out four of their enemies without any lethal injuries. Both Caterina's father and the man he had paid for this sort of jobs had used their limbs and then the bodies of their opponents to shield their vital points. Light was observing their strategy – it was brilliant!

All this time, Bianca began fearing for her life. She could hear the Snake's men being slaughtered outside the door, but she trusted the Snake to get her out of there. She had done everything right – he had no reason to be mad at her anymore. The blonde was frowning, her palms sweating and her eyes holding back frightened tears. All that she could hear were Diego's last words and Caterina singing her threats with pride.

"Go, daddy, go! I want a snake leather purse, can I have it? Pretty, pretty please~" the girl whined, pulling and twisting her wrists in hope of freeing herself from the ropes. "Padre! They hurt me! Tied me up like an animal! Can I pay them back before you're done? Daddy, please!"

Already angered, Bianca slapped the girl's face as hard as she could, scratching her cheek with her ring. "Will you shut the hell up?!" Turning towards the camera, the woman waited for the Snake to do something. "You better get me out of here! Don't you dare leave me for dead! Do you hear me?"

Caterina laughed. "Oh, I bet he does! He will leave you behind, like every other little whore of his. You've been used, darling – surprise! My, how unexpected!"

Shin, trying to find his courage to make a move, was just spotting an opportunity. "Perhaps Caterina is right. She seems to know the rules of this game, but even from my perspective it seems-!"

"I didn't ask any of you, spoiled brats!" Bianca spat out, pacing the room from one end to the other. "Snake! Say something, god damn it!"

'And what would you want me to say, Elizabeth?' the criminal asked her through the speakers. The woman could hear him grinning from the tone of his voice.

"Elizabeth? Is that your name, or the name he gave you? Most whores use a fake name," Caterina chuckled. "Say, did you kill my dear Diego? Was it you, the mysterious 'Amateur Assassin'?"

"She murdered someone?!" Shin cried in despair.

"Get me the hell out of here!" the blonde yelled towards the camera just as the door was being busted down.

'Then you better hold your breath, Lizzy!' the Snake laughed just as the door gave in and fell to the ground. From all corners of the room a thick, white smoke was being pumped into the tight, closed space at a great speed. Although he could no longer see what was happening through the cameras, the man was pleased. Really, he was thrilled! He had finally caught the Dragon in a trap, with his dear daughter and the girl's son-of-a-cop boyfriend sharing his grave.

"…Go see if she's alive," he eventually mumbled towards one of his men. He immediately put on a gas mask and went in a hurry to see if the British woman was still hanging in there. The smoke was very poisonous, or so he had been warned.

Outside the Green Snake bar, the owner was waiting in the back of his car. The passenger seat was occupied by a professional assassin. They were all waiting to see if the one sent back into the underground was going to return when the sirens of the police made themselves heard from a few streets away.

"Get off," the Snake ordered his assassin. "If she's alive, bring her to me. Bring me all of my men who got out alive. Don't get arrested, if I have to tell you that," the man ordered right before patting the shoulder of his driver.


Author's Notes:

As usual, this chapter has been proofread by AbandonedSock - this time in record time!

Oh, what a busy day! I've also published the first chapter of a story written in collaboration with another author for the D. Gray-Man fandom. You can find a summary and the direct link on my profile~ I'msoexcitedaboutthis!

Also, here is your one time only offer! You now have the chance to play the Grimm Ripper and choose if you wish to kill or to spare one of the characters. I'll give you a spoiler that you can't kill Light (obviously, lucky bastard is the main character) or the Dragon. Who you can kill (or spare) could be Caterina, Shin, Bianca, or the Dragon's bodyguard... or Shin's younger brothers.

Always glad to see you are still around, Jupiter's Bull. It is challenging to follow the timeline now that there are more than... 3 events a year? Haha. But we're still accurate. All this happens on Dec 4th and the confrontation between Kira and L happens on Dec. 5th, so it is still possible. It will be on the next chapter.