XXXII –Borrowed Time
There was a very fine line he was walking on at the moment. Namikawa Reiji had been contacted by an anonymous investor willing to bribe him in order to receive confidential information on the owner of the Yotsuba Group. However, only minutes before he had received the offer, the young man had spoken to his father who had told him the Dragon was impossible to contact.
'…This is our last offer. My boss wants an answer now,' the man at the other end of the line insisted.
"Yes, I have had no trouble comprehending the situation before and let me assure you, that aspect remained unchanged. Unfortunately, your memory seems to be failing you, sir. For the last time, I have asked you to give me this superior of yours on the phone."
Sighing, the one making the offer covered the microphone and spoke to someone briefly. Reiji waited patiently for the other to comply.
'Good evening, young prince,' a different voice spoke into the phone in a rather annoyed and disrespectful tone.
"I will assume you are the superior of the previous one," the man checked.
'Congrats – well guessed. Do you want a prize for that?'
"A trophy would be difficult to refuse, thank you." Annoyed, Namikawa made up his mind on the spot. "I was hoping this mysterious investor willing to so generously celebrate our secret alliance would be more of a cultivated, respectable man. Unfortunately, if I was tempted to shake hands with the devil before, I can see now you are nothing but an accidentally rich… thug, I think is the word?"
At the other end of the line, Reiji could hear the man breathing deeply and trying to control his anger. 'You dare disrespect me?! Don't you know I can crush you like a cockroach?!'
"Sir, with or without your permission, this talk will be over in a moment. Now, please allow me to simplify my answer to your level of understanding – if you dare bother me once more, I won't be so kind. Just because it is not my style does not necessarily mean I am defenseless. Simply put, I refuse your offer." Not waiting for an answer, Reiji hang up and turned his phone over, removing the battery and the SIM card underneath. Instead of destroying it, he transferred it into another phone connected to a computer that the Dragon had gifted him several days before. Through the software installed on that computer, he will be capable of tracking down whoever called him again.
To Namikawa, there were two believable scenarios. In the first case, the Dragon was wounded and hiding for a short period of time before making an extraordinary comeback and reclaiming everything he owned and more. In the second case, the Dragon was dead, which left him the opportunity to take over with the help of his father. Regardless, the final result would still be to his advantage if he turned down the offer. Even if the Dragon was alive, he was well known for the gratitude he showed to those who stayed loyal to him, especially when temped by outsiders. Namikawa couldn't dream of a better chance to ask for a reward.
However, what he did not consider was the third scenario. On the night of fourth to fifth of December, when the police broke into the Green Snake bar, they were surprised to only recover three people alive. In a really bad shape, unconscious and with a dangerous level of toxins in his blood, the son of the police chief had been rushed to the hospital around one in the morning.
Besides Light, the officers had found the body of another teenager, later identified as a school mate of Light. On the corridor, ten bodyguards laid dead – most with broken necks or heads, while some had only been knocked unconscious and had died because of the poisonous gas that had filled the underground level of the building.
The snakes found roaming the building were caught, identified and transferred to the zoo. All of them were beautiful, venomous exemplars. A couple were rare, but most were rather common. The Police had also found an entire laboratory used to extract and refine snake venom with samples labeled and arranged on categories like in a pharmacy.
'The police have found two children, twins, aged between six and seven years old. The boys are in a critical condition with signs of abuse and suffering from poisoning with a unknown cocktail of snake venom. At the time, this is all the information we have. We will be waiting on an update on the victims from the hospital at 1 p.m., when a press conference is scheduled,' the news anchor announced, visibly moved by the news she had to present.
Sighing, the King leaned closer to his pillow and curled an arm underneath it. Perhaps it was about time he stopped waiting for the Dragon to bail him out and made his own escape. The man had managed to buy a phone with three packs of cigarettes and some stories about the legend of the Dragon.
"…Still on my side?" the King mumbled through the phone, pretending to be scratching his upper lip.
'How can I pay you back?' a young voice full of gratitude spoke back.
"Go tell your old man that if he gets me out, that is the only favor I will ask of him. No more debts. Clean."
'Will do, sir!' The teenager hung up and ran to his father. The man had a small stand at the fish market, selling his own catch and exploiting his son whenever he couldn't afford to pay the workers. The child didn't mind though, not as long as he was left with enough time to study.
About three years ago, the child had made friends with the man searching his father's pockets for the last coin and still asking for more every time. 'You're a smart kid,' the man told him after a few minutes, 'I'll make sure you get to do something one day that doesn't stink.' Although said as a joke, the child began to receive money every semester that he had used to sign up for school and pay for it. The boy's father found out when it was already too late to walk out of the deal.
"Hey, dad?" the boy asked, waiting for his father to take the money from a client and pay attention to him. "That man called, the one in a red suit."
"He's in jail! What does he want with us now?!" the man groaned, counting the money he had made that day.
"Yeah… Well, he wants out. I think I can come up with a plan, but I will need your boat." The boy already had the keys to his father second-hand boat in his pocket, well prepared for a refusal.
"Don't you dare! You wanted to go to school?! That's fine, as long as I'm not paying for it! But don't you dare help out a criminal like him!" When he was done counting, the man put the money in a zipped pocket, mentally adding the sum up to what he had saved in the past few months. "…Ever since that pirate went to jail, we finally have enough to manage on our own. We're better off without-… Yao?! YAO!"
The child was waving from the boat, starting the engine. "Take care, father! …If all goes well, I don't think I'm coming back," Yao mumbled to himself, sailing towards the canal from which he will have access underneath the prison. The thirteen-years-old was putting all of his hope in the King's mercy and would gladly throw away a life of disrespect, poverty and hard work for a few kind words and the promise of being supported to finish his school.
On the other hand, the King had been putting his hope into the Dragon's hands for years, and there was no better time to pay him back for all of the support he had received from him.
It was still December the fifth when the Dragon woke up without the skin on his left hand and forearm. "Good morning!" the Snake greeted him with an air of superiority. He was sitting on an armchair a couple meters away from the Dragon, dressed up in his trade-mark green suit with a shiny new tie mimicking the scales of a reptile. "How was your beauty sleep? Hm? Did you rest well? Knowing you, it may very well be the first time you've allowed yourself the luxury of falling unconscious since the motel attempt." Making a gesture with his hand, the Snake ordered another to cover the Dragon's skinned arm in salt.
Cringing and groaning in pain, the man tried to keep awake and figure out his surroundings. His mind was confused, worried by one thing only. "Where is she?"
"Still asleep, I'm afraid. I've got someone trying to wake her, so don't worry. You will hear her when she does," the Snake assured him with a smirk. "Now, let's move onto the serious things. First, who is this asshole of yours, Namikawa Reiji?"
This time, it was the Dragon's turn to grin. "You can't buy my men anymore. They know it is in their best interest to stay on my side and unlike you, they are intelligent enough to take over any moment."
"Wrong answer," the Snake yawned as the torturer went and cut open the skin on the Dragon's back and pulled it off, exposing his muscles. "It's time for the Dragon to extend his wings!"
A few moments later, Bianca walked down a few stairs. "I think you should see what's on TV. It's that guy…" the blonde said and with a sigh, the Snake picked up his crutches.
"Have fun," he told the torturer. "I want him alive and conscious," he mentioned right before following Bianca upstairs. "I will assume it is important," he warned her.
"Seems so. Look! He's showing his face and daring Kira," the blonde pointed out. On the screen, there was a young man with long, dark hair and an artificially calm expression speaking.
'...Criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer. I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down. I will find you. Kira, I've got a pretty good idea what your motivation might be and I can guess what you hope to achieve. However, what you're doing right now is evil.'
The Snake sat on a couch. It was more comfortable than a chair and he wouldn't have to worry about falling over if he threw himself on it too hard. Patiently, he was waiting for the man to continue. "…That's just stupid. Why the hell would he hide his face for years, only to come out now and make a direct threat? I'm not buying it."
"Do you think it could be a trap?" Bianca asked, standing with her arms crossed over her chest. She was still dizzy, but could manage to keep her balance for a few minutes. "Maybe that's not even L, but a bait of some sort."
The Snake nodded. "…That's actually a pretty good guess. But why isn't Kira making any move? I think this Kira is either really smart, or not watching the news… which is unusual for him or them."
Bianca sat down by his side, wrapping an arm around the man's scarred shoulders. "Or maybe he's dead."
Raising an eyebrow, the man turned to look at her. "What do you mean, dead? Who killed him?"
The woman smirked weakly and shrugged. "I don't know… Maybe it was that kid, the chief's son. I mean, he probably grew up hating criminals, right? His dad is a cop, he must have. Then, he met Caterina, got close to the Dragon, and received some power to rid the world of his possible competitors. Kira took out many of the Dragon's men that fell in disgrace, one way or another."
The Snake pushed her away. "And you expect him to give such power to a kid?! No shit!"
"Yeah!" the woman insisted. "Think about it – it's perfect. No one would suspect him! And if he's dead, of course nobody is going to take the challenge and kill this Lind L. Tailor, right?"
"Are you drunk or what? I know him," the man pointed towards the basement, "Okay? I know him well - that's why I caught him! I know his way of thinking, his weaknesses, his patterns, his every breath! The Dragon would never trust a kid like him, especially not a cop's son. Why would he? Because his girl slept with him or something? Girls like her change boyfriends every week or sooner. It means nothing!"
Sighing, Bianca rolled her eyes. "Maybe… but then why isn't anyone taking the challenge? Come on, the guy would do anything to spoil his little girl. You have to admit, he would."
The Snake stood up. "Has she woken up yet?"
Bianca shook her head. "No, but her pulse is normal and her breath even. She should be awake by now."
The man nodded, taking his crutches. "When she does, bring her down." A grin was twisting his scarred face as the man began thinking aloud. "After all these years, I will end him… Physically, he's strong, even at this age. His mind is weak, though – it's always been! It will be enough to show him his little girl in chains to break him once and for all."
Bianca nodded and went to check on the auburn-haired girl. She had been hanging from her hands for so long, her fingers were turning a shade of dark purple, swelling and twitching involuntary every now and then. The blond slapped her, but the girl didn't react. She took a lighter and kept the flame close to her arm until the skin began turning a dark red. Bianca even took a knife and pressed its dull edge between the girl's ribs. Still, she got no reaction. Frowning, the woman checked her vital signs again.
Down in the basement, the torturer was peeling strips of muscle tissue off the Dragon's back. The Snake had taken his seat, smoking a cigar and enjoying the look of pure hatred and pain on his former caretaker's face. "Liz had a strange idea earlier. She insinuated that you created Kira, is it true?"
The man was growling between his teeth. "What do you think?" the Dragon grinned, proud until the end. "You will never find out from me."
"Is that so…?" the Snake raised both his eyebrows. "Well, then I think you remember an old method of execution. I think the Chinese used it, right? Those disgusting Chinese… The reason you appeared into this world, too yellow for Europe but too white for Asia. You fucking half-breed… You will be cut into a million little pieces right in front of you precious Caterina. Don't you just love it? Because of you, she will suffer for years to come."
The Dragon lowered his head, looking all around him as the torturer was choosing his instruments. He had his wrists chained to opposite walls, keeping him in a crucifix position. His legs were free, but every move he tried to make hurt horribly because of his back. He knew that when he took off his shoes during the time when the Snake was upstairs. The man didn't even want to know how he must have looked. Instead, he reached out and kicked the table on which the torturer had his instruments and caught a hold of a knife between his toes. "If this is the end of the line for me, it won't be for her too!"
All this time, Caterina had been trying her best not to react to the various pains that Bianca had caused her. By breathing slowly for about an hour, she managed to slow down her heart beat as well. Just like she anticipated, Bianca got worried that she was dying and climbed up on a chair to untie her hands. Once she saw the opportunity, Caterina stood on her toes on the edge of the chair, wrapped the cable around Bianca's neck and jumped off, kicking the chair as well.
Falling on her butt, the auburn-haired girl crawled backwards. The view was terrifying. Caterina watched the woman for a few seconds, desperately trying to hold the cable away from her neck, but only wrapping it tighter. Her eyes went wide as she was gasping for air, trying to scream at the same time but only letting out a few coughs and incoherent sounds. Getting a chill down her spine, Caterina turned away and quickly ran out the door. She began looking for a weapon or a gun around the room that the Snake and his blond seemed to be using as a living area. Her hands were aching terribly, her arms and cheeks too, but the thought of being used for the rest of her life was terrifying enough to motivate her to keep searching.
Light was also searching for something, once he had been finally left alone to rest. It seemed two young nurses were especially careful he had everything he needed – they even asked if he was bored. Since when was that an important matter? If at first the teenager had been amused to see them so charmed by his smile, now they were getting on his nerves. L's transmission was just about to end when he eventually got out of bed and made his way to the chair turned into a temporary closet for his belongings.
'Feeling better already?' Ryuk grinned when he returned. He was chewing an apple that Light assumed he had stolen from somewhere.
"I can't talk to you," he mumbled in a low voice as he reached for the pages he had torn out of the Death Note.
'Why not? We're alone, what's the matter?' the shinigami asked again.
This time, Light refused to answer him. Instead, he sat on the bed to catch his breath. His head ached horribly and his heart rate was accelerating already. If he tried to make any effort, his lungs would sting like that one time in his first year of high school when he tried to smoke out of curiosity.
'That is all I had to say to you, Kira. If you have any sense of justice, you will follow my advice and surrender. If not, expect to be hunted down and brought to justice. Either way, such evil cannot be tolerated anymore,' L continued with his speech as Light took out a pen.
"Oh, no… Don't think I will ever surrender. Why would I? I am innocent. Even more, I am justice!" Kira mumbled from the edge of the bed. "Besides, without these…" he grinned towards the pages of the Death Note, "there won't be any evidence to convict me, which means that catching me will be absolutely impossible! But just for showing the world what happens when you cross me…" Kira wrote the name down on half of the page in front of him, using the night stand as a table. Soon after, he looked at the clock on the wall, counting down the seconds.
Caterina had heard the talk coming from behind a door. It wasn't closed entirely and she could see through the opening that it lead somewhere downstairs. Her father's words sent chills running down her spine as she looked around the room for a weapon of any kind. The teenager was determined to get her father out of there, even if the voice of reason was begging her to leave and trust the man with his own life.
All this time, Kira was watching the tongue of the clock. Only twenty seconds left.
The auburn-haired girl could hear her father groaning in pain and something liquid splashing on the floor. Making up her mind, she took the third door and prayed that she won't run into any guards or friends of the Snake.
Grinning, Kira kept looking from the clock to the screen of the TV and back again. "Five… four… three…" he mumbled to himself, as if it was the New Year's Eve. "One…!" His eyes darkened with the pleasure of a prideful kill as Lind L. Tailor clenched his chest and threw his head back in tension, holding his last breath and releasing it with his soul. The man fell over the desk he had been sitting at, his head hitting the papers on which he had printed his speech on the evil nature of Kira's deeds.
Caterina found her escape through an open bathroom window, climbing up on the toilet and pulling herself up. Her arms were aching and trembling terribly because of the time spent hung and her eyes were glossy with tears threatening to spill any moment, but the girl was determined to save herself. Part of her knew her father would have let himself be killed just to give her an extra minute to escape. The other side of her was desperately trying to believe her father knew what he was doing and would never allow himself to be caught off-guard.
Kira was grinning, trying hard to hold back his laughter just so he won't offer those annoying nurses another excuse to sit with him. "…What's wrong? You've got nothing else to say?" he mumbled in a low voice, incapable of holding back from mocking the recently deceased. The TV transmission was immediately interrupted.
Surprisingly, however, the screen had turned white, showing the logo of L in the Old English Text font. A robotic voice spoke next, clearly shocked by the event. 'I… I thought the test was just in case, but I… I never thought it would actually happen. Kira, it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen to me, Kira – if you did indeed kill L, the man you just saw die on the television, I should tell you that he was an inmate whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me. The police arrested him in absolute secrecy so you wouldn't have heard about him on TV or through the internet. It would appear that not even you have access on information on this type of criminals.'
Ryuk began chuckling. 'Heh. He got you there!'
'But I assure you,' the robotic voice continued its monologue as Light just felt the sky falling down over him, 'L is real. I do exist. Now, try to kill me! What's wrong? Come on, right now! I dare you! Can't you do it?!'
Both Kira and Light were left speechless. Such a simple trap and he had fallen for it… He couldn't kill someone whose name and face he did not know – those were the conditions set by the Death Note itself. 'That bastard…' he mentally cursed L. Kira felt the rage and frustration, he felt the blood speeding through his veins as L was publicly humiliating him and diminishing his power.
Crawling out, Caterina looked around her. She was in the middle of nowhere, with no visible road ahead other than the wheel tracks on the ground. There was a dark SUV parked about five meters away and a shadow on the ground creeping up from behind the wall. Without any plan or a good hiding spot, the girl slipped back through the same small window into the basement bathroom. It was almost at the same level with the ground so she doubted the guard would pay it any attention.
Reaching out in a moment of desperation and panic, Caterina grabbed the guard's ankles and pulled him down as forcefully as her aching arms allowed her, banging his head against the water reservoir repeatedly. She hit his forehead again and again, until she felt the man going limp. Breathing deeply a couple of times, the girl looked up towards the ceiling and held her hands up for prayer. "…Please, don't let him be dead. Please…"
On the verge of tears, she searched the man's pockets for a phone and took a small gun that she hid under the thin belt of her jeans. She then took off the man's belt and tied his hands behind his back, just in case he woke up before she would have made her escape. Crawling back out, she stood there for a moment and listened. Other guards present outside meant she could not get too far without a confrontation and gunshots would have definitely drawn a lot of unnecessary attention on her.
Around the same time, a knock on the door made Light jump in surprise. Tossing the Death Note pages and the pen under his pillow and laying back down, he didn't have to act exhausted to fool his visitors. The surprise had sent a wave of dizziness washing over his head and his limbs were numb and heavy once again. "Yes?" he called.
"Light…" his father came in, his face a few shades paler and his eyes red and tired. "How are you feeling?" He neared his son and sat on a chair beside his bed. "Do you need anything?"
His son shook his head slowly. "No, I'm fine… Thank you, father, but no."
Nodding, the man revealed the real reason why he had been allowed there when the rest of the family wasn't. "Light, what happened there? And why were you at such a notorious bar in the first place?"
"…Has it been twenty-four hours yet?" Kira asked in return. One wrong move was enough to prove him wrong. He may not be the smartest when acting on impulse, he was capable of making mistakes and he was not in a powerful enough position from which he could fix these. Kira couldn't afford making any other mistakes.
His father's brows furrowed and his face darkened. "I just want to know you had nothing to do with it."
Having missed the morning news report, Kira tried to get as much information out of the police chief as possible. "Is Caterina alright? And Shin – what happened to him?"
Sighing, the man shook his head. "Shin… the boy didn't make it. We haven't found Caterina yet. Did she call you there? Was that where she threw her parties?"
Already dizzy, Light frowned and took a moment to understand the question. "…No. Why would you think of that? She's not the type to throw parties, especially not like what was happening in that bar."
"Then why were you there?" Light's father begged for an explanation, worried sick and annoyed by the few pieces of information he had.
Kira remembered what the police knew and figured out a way to send them away. "I went to meet with Caterina so we could go out for a few hours. We didn't have a plan. I took a cab to the hotel where she was staying because I was getting impatient. After I picked her up, the same cab was still there, but there were two or three men in the car. I can't remember their faces, it all happened too fast. They got off and took her from my arms, threw her in the back and rushed off."
The man was shocked. "This girl had been kidnapped? Why didn't you call the police?" He had not taken the matter seriously before. A rich man being paranoid after a robbery was nothing out of the ordinary, but a kidnapping? The chief hadn't realized before just how grave was the situation.
Light sighed. "I didn't know what to do! I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen!" After a moment of awkward tension and silence, he went on. "I found a phone number in a file and called her father. We met just outside the station and went after her. I have no idea why Shin was there or what they wanted with Caterina. There was a blond woman there too… Tall, wide shoulders, in a see-through black shirt."
The man nodded. "Anything else you remember?"
"She… I think she was talking to somebody, arguing. Caterina's father and some bodyguards broke down the door, then smoke filled the room. My eyes stung and my nose, throat and lungs were burning. I fell next to someone, I'm not sure who. After a while, someone came in and kicked me out of the way. I think it was a man… He talked something with the blond woman, I heard her voice."
"Can you remember what they spoke of?" his father asked again, well aware Light would tell him everything that could help the police track down the kidnappers.
"No. The next thing I knew, I was in the hospital." Light looked at his father with interest. "Do you think it could be the same blond who murdered their driver?"
The chief thought about it for a moment. "It is still early to assume this, but… I believe you could be right. There was a laboratory there used to refine and combine snake venoms and various drugs. We also found over a hundred snakes." Disgust was written all over his face. "Light, you've put yourself in a very dangerous situation. It is a miracle you are even alive! To do what you've tried to do, agents train for years and even then, they can never be sure if they will return alive."
Light nodded. "I understand, father. I was reckless, but the important thing is that I have survived. I hope I could give you something useful… I want Diego's murderer and Caterina's kidnappers brought to justice. Besides…" The teenager stopped for a moment, allowing his other half to think it through. Perhaps it would be a good idea to share her suspicions. "Caterina seemed convinced the man who ordered her mother's assassination is also behind this. She told me when we met at the hotel that this man kept threatening them. Father, I think that if you catch this man, you will do the entire world a favor. He is a murderer and the head of a criminal organization."
The man set his hand over Light's shoulder. Kira panicked for a moment, thinking he might see the pages of the Death Note or worse, to touch them by mistake. With Ryuk observing the scene, it would have been a disaster. Light shifted so his back would cover the edge of the pillow.
"Light, we are working on it. We will link the investigations once we have enough evidence to support the girl's suspicions, but we will consider this theory. The man you are talking about is known as the Snake. He is wanted in several countries for premeditated murder, acts of sadism and torture, drugs trafficking, prostitution, slavery, corruption, blackmail, robbery and more. This girl…" he sighed, "You wouldn't believe the people she is involved with. Her father has been suspected of similar crimes in the past, but somehow, he had never been sentenced. The files keep disappearing…"
Kira nodded. "I thought so… Father, please do everything possible to catch this criminal, the Snake. After that, we can worry about Caterina's father, but for now, I think the Snake is a bigger problem. Unlike her father, this one is more dangerous, unpredictable, and most importantly… he could be holding hostages right now, as we talk. You need to find him!"
Author's Notes:
Guess who's back? Back again! ...Gentleman Death is. *sigh* The next chapter was so not planned to happen until Near's final confrontation with Kira, which is in another few years (plot-time). So officially, I have no idea where I'm going with this. Good thing my beta, Abandoned Sock, remains loyal to me and as always, keeps proofreading another chapter.
But anyway, here's the famous confrontation that everyone has been expecting ever since I mentioned L into this story. The setting is different and Kira is a tad later, but the result is the same. Well, except perhaps the part where he realizes what a big mistake he makes and that he should really watch it from now on. As a disoriented writer, I will definitely encourage him to do so.
I'm really glad to see two new reviewers. By the way, Katiekatexoxo, the title is a cross between two songs that I thought matched the plot of this story when I published it. The first is "This is Gospel" from Panic! At The Disco and the second is "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant. Also, since we're talking musical influences on this story, I used to write for Anastasia to songs like "Without You" or "Fu(ked My Way Up To The Top" by Lana Del Rey. Many scenes between Light and Caterina were written with "Flawless", "Daddy Issues", or "Lurk" by The Neighbourhood as background noise. Some of the explosive or tense scenes were written on songs like "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" (Lorde), "Hit and Run" (Lana del Rey), "Emperor's New Clothes" (P!ATD), "Bohemian Rapsody" (Queen), or even "Purple Lamborghini" (Skrillex & Rick Ross) or "Glory" (Hollywood Undead). I also used the soundtracks of Death Note, Lucifer, Suicide Squad, Sucker Punch, and some songs used in popular Death Note AMVs (for some, I don't know the name of the band / artist).
In other news, I have a good one and a bad one. The good news is I am finally finding enough time for writing every week now so you won't have to wait for two months for one update. The bad news is... more like half and half. I'm at that point where I'm no longer the all-knowing writer, I'm merely a spectator like all of you, while the characters are acting on their own in my head. That means anything could happen and I have no idea until seconds before it's done. By this point, not even the canon events are guaranteed to happen, or at least not in the exactly same way. Well, you've been warned!
