A foreword (May 8, 2005):
A few Mother's Days ago, my pastor said that if you took all the things a mother does for you for free in one lifetime, and paid someone to do it, the tab would run into the hundred-millions. (I think childbirth by itself would cost quite a bit. ;) )
Among other things, the story below showcases the power of a mother's love for her children, and the power of those children's love for their mother in return. Therefore, I can't think of a better day to release it.
Happy Mother's Day to Kimiyo Hoshi and all the other mothers in the world, real or fictional! Here is your 21-gun salute!
Dr. Light
Issue Two
"I Am Dr. Light"
Part Two of Two
by Lamont Mallory
Kimiyo Hoshi created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez
"I feel so much better now!"
Imako emerged from the kitchen, stretching contentedly. "Think I'll watch some TV," she said, rounding the sofa and taking the remote from the table.
Yasu followed slowly behind. He was rubbing both cheeks of his deeply reddened face, burning despite the tears running down them. "You bully! You didn't have to hit me so hard!"
"Yeah, well, I'm your older sister. You're supposed to show me respect!" Imako asserted, sinking into the sofa and turning on the high-definition TV.
Yasu folded his arms and muttered, "Maybe when you DESERVE it..."
The face of news anchorwoman Yuko Yagi appeared on the screen. "-- GNN News. We've just received a report on an explosion in the Shibuya shopping district. We now go live to the scene."
Reporter Kayo Yamaguchi appeared, her name showing at the bottom of the screen. "The usual bustling crowds in Shibuya were disrupted today as a sudden explosion destroyed the building. As you can see behind me, there is a massive cloud of dust dispersing from where the building once stood, and police are doing their best to redirect people and traffic away from the affected area.
"Wait a minute..." She pointed toward a quickly-growing point of light in the night sky, which the camera zoomed in on. "I think we've spotted... Yes, it is! Dr. Light is now approaching the cloud!"
Imako sat up. Yasu ran to the side of the sofa. And they both spoke in unison: "Mom..."
As the camera followed the heroine, Yamaguchi continued: "As you may know, she was supposed to be holding a press interview earlier about the recent Yakuza movements, but she... became discontented with the line of questioning and abruptly called it off, taking our camera's power with her when she left.
"We've also heard eyewitness reports that she met with Wonder Woman in Shiba Park earlier. And during their discussion, Dr. Light grew hostile and threw down a card believed to be her Justice League membership card."
"In any case, she has just landed and... I think she's firing some sort of invisible beam into the cloud... possibly to scan it... And now she's trying another..."
Yamaguchi was silent for a few moments. Then...
"Wait a minute... I think I see a sphere of light coming from inside the cloud... And somebody's inside it..." The camera zoomed in on the glowing circle.
"It's... It's... I can't believe this... It's the other Dr. Light!"
Both children were stunned for a few seconds. Then Imako clapped her hands together excitedly, "This is our chance!"
"Huh?"
"Our chance to help Mom!" she elaborated, running upstairs to her room and throwing open her closet.
Yasu grimaced. His sister had that telltale glimmer in her eyes and eagerness in her voice. And he was getting an all-too-familiar feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew Mom would really want them to stay safe at home. But where could he hide from Imako this time?
Imako's loud, eager voice reverberated through the house. "We'll go to Shibuya, help Mom beat down that other Doctor guy, and then she'll HAVE to use us as her sidekicks!" She then raced down the stairs again, holding a crumpled costume.
"Here," she continued, heaving the red and white bodysuit and the pair of forearm-length white gloves in Yasu's general direction. "Boots are near the front door! Put these on! Hurry!"
Then she scurried back up to her room.
The boy sighed, picked up the scattered clothing, and dragged himself up to his room.
After 20 seconds, Imako emerged in a violet and white costume similar to her mother and brother, but with very short sleeves and legs, and a smaller star symbol on the left side of her chest. She tugged on her small, feminine gloves to make sure they were taut, then pounded on her brother's door.
"C'mon out already!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
Unwilling to wait any longer, she turned the knob and pushed the door inward. Yasu was sitting on the side of his bed, pulling the last sleeve of his matching red and white costume, the star symbol on the right side of his chest.
"Hey!" he protested the intrusion.
"We HAVE to hurry!" She grabbed one of the gloves laying beside him and immediately shoved his hand into it.
"OW! You didn't have to do that so hard! And how are we going to get all the way to Shibuya, anyway?"
The girl paused to think for a moment. "Hey! I know! We can use Mom's tele-whatsis!" Without hesitating a moment, she scurried downstairs, through the hall, and then down another flight of stairs, into her mother's home laboratory.
"You mean 'telePORTER'... moron..." Yasu muttered to himself, gently putting on the other glove and walking down the stairs.
Running back up from the lab, Imako held a palm-sized device that vaguely resembled a cell phone. As she walked to the front door, she studied the teleporter, all the buttons labeled with numbers and various symbols. Yasu was already there, putting on his long boots.
The girl furrowed her brow in frustration. "Oh, well," she said with a shrug, "I'll just push buttons and see what happens..." She raised a finger towards the panel...
"Gimme that!" Yasu jumped in, snatching the device away. "If you 'just push buttons', you'll dump us in the middle the ocean or something, idiot!"
"Oh, really?" Imako said, grabbing her own boots and putting them on. "And you think YOU can do better?"
"Better than YOU? Sure!" replied Yasu with a smirk. "See, it's based on longitude and latitude," he explained matter-of-factly, pointing at the lines on the screen. Then he began to press a precise series of buttons. "You input the coordinates based on where you are... make a graph of where you want to go... then..."
"As if you know anything about longitude and latitude..." the girl retorted, peering over his shoulder and ruefully raising an eyebrow.
"Watch and see," he assured her. A flash of energy emerged from the teleporter, enveloping the two children. The light intensified, and then disappeared, taking Imako and Yasu with it.
The two Drs. Light faced each other, studying one another closely for even a hint of a sudden move.
"Your allies are laughing at you, you know," Arthur began. "I'm sure of it, because mine always laughed at me.
"Dr. Light, the coward... Dr. Light, the idiot..."
Kimiyo interjected, "I think they're STILL right about you."
"Amusing. But my reputation will change, starting now. YOUR misuse of my name is the only remaining wall barring me from reclaiming my true status as a heavyweight. I've had my revenge on the Titans, and through them, the Justice League.
"This time... it's YOUR turn."
Kimiyo smirked at that pronouncement. "To be honest, I'm almost glad you showed up. All I've been hearing about from people today is what YOU'VE been up to, and what they believed I should do in response to it. Now, I get to show them what I intend to do instead of just telling them to where to stick their opinions.
"Now, I get to take all my anger and frustration out on YOU."
Arthur looked around at the tightly enclosed area that the buildings created. He started to float straight up. "Shall we take this someplace a little less confining?"
"So I can send you screaming all the way to the ground? That's fine with me!" she retorted, rising straight up as well.
The Doctors Light made their way well above the skyline of the Shibuya area.
"Now, then," Arthur grinned, readying himself. "No mercy!"
Each of the two charged up a monstrous blast of energy... then fired.
The resulting confluence lit the night as bright as day for a moment.
Coming out of that, the Drs. Light launched into a barrage of constantly-shifting electromagnetic attacks.
If Arthur attempted to use lasers, Kimiyo would cancel him out with lasers.
When Kimiyo tried to bombard him with high-level gamma rays, Arthur answered with his own gamma rays.
Each of them would absorb or repel the other's attack, then alter it and fire back.
Their mid-air clash disrupted the night sky with shades of color and flashes of white.
Blues!
Yellows!
Greens!
Reds!
Purples!
It was a fireworks display with potentially serious consequences. The small crowd still daring to observe the battle gasped in awe at the dazzling aurora.
Then, the two combatants ceased their attacks and eyed one another warily. Arthur began to return to the ground; Kimiyo matched his descent.
Kimiyo took this moment to mentally marshal her observations. 'We're equally matched... We're using the same sources of power... This battle could go on forever!'.
Arthur had clearly come to the same conclusion. "You are a tough one, I'll give you that," he commented as they landed. He motioned at the far-away crowd. "But all good heroes have ONE common weakness." He fired a blast at the buildings directly above them.
The lucky ones scrambled away, screaming, and climbing over one another to escape. Others found themselves buried under the heavy rubble. The police scrambled to help were hard pressed to move the larger pieces pinning some people. Yamaguchi and her cameraman held their ground as best they could, the camera still taking in the scene through the new cloud of dust and debris.
Fight or rescue? For Kimiyo, there was no choice; those people needed her NOW. She quickly converted to light...
...and Arthur's eyes widened with interest.
As she flew towards the ailing people, she felt an insistent backward pull on her body. She peered behind herself and saw Arthur, trying to drag her to him! She struggled to escape his pull, but found herself being inexorably drawn back towards the villain.
Arthur grinned broadly, his fingers eagerly twitching. "Come to me, honey!"
As Kimiyo's glowing form approached Arthur at high speed, she looked behind herself again.
And she was... smiling!
At the last second, she shifted to human form, and her feet slammed heavily into the villain's stomach. Immediately after impact, she turned back to light and stopped herself. The heroine watched in total delight as Arthur flew down the street, painfully collided with a pole, and tumbled to the ground on his stomach.
"GO to HELL, 'darling'!" she called, speeding off to help the victims.
Arthur lay still on the ground for a few moments. Then, he pulled himself to his hands and knees, trying to regain his bearings. His eyes temporarily unfocused from the run-in with the pole, he could only make out the vague, bright shape of his opponent, assisting fellow citizens. As he slowly but surely pushed himself to his feet, he corrected his eyesight with his powers.
The last bit of heavy rubble lifted, Kimiyo released another grateful woman and gently but urgently ushered her to the waiting police and their vehicles. As she went for more people, she heard an angry voice from afar.
"Recess is over!" he bellowed, charging for another attack.
"Finish rescuing everybody and get them out of here!" she instructed the police. "I'll hold him off!"
While staving off Arthur's attacks with her left hand, Kimiyo began launching the rubble at him with her right hand. He was forced to divert some of his own energy to shooting some rocks while dodging others. She began approaching him, slowly but surely, intent on boxing him in and putting an end to this battle.
Some distance away from the scene, a flash of light appeared, bearing two young figures.
"See? I told you I knew what I was doing!" Yasu grinned smugly at his sister.
Imako's eyes narrowed. "So you got lucky..." she spat out dismissively. Then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning, she found the two Drs. Light still locked in battle. "Anyway, 'genius', we still have to help Mom."
Yasu also took in the fight. "But she looks like she's holding her own. I still don't think we should try to help her at all!"
Imako glared down at her brother, making sure to tower over him for maximum overbearing effect. "We're HERE, and we're GOING to help." She raised her open palm menacingly. "Am I making myself CLEAR?"
Yasu rubbed his face again, even though it no longer stung. "...yeah..." he yielded, breaking away from her harsh eyes.
She grabbed his arm harshly and dragged him forward. "So COME ON!"
He dug in his heels as best he could. "Are you crazy! If we just go up to him, we'll be killed!"
"I'll... I'll come up with something when we get there!"
"You ARE crazy!"
Imako stopped and glared at him again. "Look, you little coward, unless you've got a better idea..."
"I do! I do!" Yasu piped up, grateful for a chance to think. "Ummm... just give me a minute..."
Imako grumbled impatiently...
Yasu steadied the garbage can that the two children had overturned. He looked out of the small alley and counted off the seconds.
Swiftly running all the way down to the next street and around the battlefield to the other side, Imako made her way towards the villain as close as she dared. In her hand, she grasped a metal pole.
After counting off 5 minutes, Yasu rolled the can into position, then started rolling it towards the villain. Letting it go, he ran up to it for one final kick.
Kimiyo, seeing her son so dangerously close to her target, gasped and halted her barrage of debris.
Arthur took a fleeting glance at the can rolling and tumbling quickly towards him. 'You must be joking," he thought, shaking his head slightly in amusement. He parceled out a small burst of energy to take care of the problem.
But Imako had already sprang from her hiding place and sprinted towards the villain, wielding the pipe like a bat.
Hearing the steps approaching, Arthur turned his head...
...just in time to meet the metal.
The villain staggered back, stunned by the blow...
...long enough for the can to knock him over.
"YATTA!" the two children cried out in victory, holding their fists up in celebration.
Then Imako saw the pipe in her palm suddenly begin to melt. Instinctively, she dropped the gooey mess.
"You DO realize you'll have to PAY for that?"
Imako watched in horror as Arthur jumped to his feet. The girl backed away quickly, then turned to run. Yasu bolted for the alley.
The villain spread his arms in both directions, preparing to strike both children down at once...
"NOOOOO!" Kimiyo cried out, quickly sending a huge volley of energy his way to distract him.
Arthur observed the approaching attack.
And he was... smiling!
The villain took the bolt of light and neatly split it in two, diverting one half to the boy and one half to the girl. The two screamed as the energy overtook them.
Arthur smiled broadly, his teeth glistening in the leftover light. "From the costume design, I'd guess those were your children. How appropriate, then, that it was their own mother's power that hurt them!
"If you want, I'll gladly finish them off for you!"
Kimiyo Hoshi saw her two children, her babies, on the ground, bruised and unconscious.
And then she saw the man who had hurt them, his mocking laughter ringing in her ears.
And then...
SHE...
SAW...
RED...
"How DARE you!" she yelled, flying into her adversary at high speed and tackling him to the ground. "How DARE you hurt innocent children!"
She raised her left hand to begin summoning energy into her body. "MY CHILDREN!"
He moved his hand to shove her off, but she savagely raked him across his face with her right hand, drawing blood. Surprised by this physical attack, he was unprepared for a frenzy of equally brutal scratches, another and another and another.
Yamaguchi gasped in shock, as the camera continued to roll. "Has she gone insane?"
At the same time, every street light that at that point still managed to remain on released its energy until it burned out. And every light in every building fixture gave up its energy until it burned out. And every electrical device and outlet until the fuses gave out. And every battery from every vehicle left in the area.
And Yamaguchi and her cameraman watched helplessly as the power from their camera and microphone leaped free once more. "No! NO! Not again!" she cried.
It would have gone dark for hundreds of kilometers in all directions... if the Earth beneath the two Doctors wasn't itself glowing with the energy being extracted from it. All of this energy was flowing into an intensely shining Kimiyo.
Then, she grabbed her adversary roughly by the collar and began pumping enormous amounts of energy into him.
"You can't be serious," Arthur scoffed at her efforts, his body absorbing the energy. "I can take as much power as you can throw at me!"
He grabbed her arm and tugged on it. "So I suggest you let me go!"
But she held on with all her willpower, all her hatred for Arthur... and all her love for her children. "I once absorbed the power of an entire STAR!" Kimiyo roared. "So... how much can YOU take!"
Arthur, now growing worried as he felt his absorption ability being pushed to the limit, tried more desperately to tear off her grasp. "Let... ahhh... GO of me!"
"I SAID... HOW MUCH CAN YOU TAKE!" she shouted, exponentially increasing the amount of power feeding into him. The unbelievable power began to overwhelm Arthur's body, and he began to scream.
"SHUT UP!" Kimiyo commanded, punching him repeatedly in the jaw with her free hand. "SHUT UP!"
Arthur weakly continued to shake and pull at the hand holding him. But Kimiyo's grip held completely firm. And she continued to send massive amounts of power in. And then she began screaming at him in Japanese...
"ONORE! BAKEMONO! MOGAITE MO SHIYOU GA NAI! NIGENAI YO!" (YOU B! YOU MONSTER! IT'S NO USE STRUGGLING! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE!)
"ATASHI, SEIBAI O SHITE KURERU YO!" (I WILL PUT YOU DOWN!)
Arthur was in complete shock, no longer able to move. He had a crazed woman with an iron grip screeching at him in a foreign language and force-feeding his body every ounce of power she could. Unable to physically or mentally cope anymore, Arthur faded into unconsciousness.
"OKIRO! WAKE UP! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!" she demanded, standing up to kick him in the head, then smacking his head violently, again and again and again and again. "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" She repeated directly in his ear, even more shrilly, "WAKE UP!"
No response.
Using her power, the heroine propped the villain against the shattered remains of a wall with her right hand. Then she raised her left hand and began to summon even more energy from the Earth and the atoms from the surrounding area into her palm.
"Your madness... ends now," she coldly determined, her voice shaking and whispering as much from her still-burning rage as from all her screaming. "You won't hurt another child... or rape another woman... or harm anyone ever again!
She summoned her voice to rise again as she prepared to strike, repeating her enemy's own words through grit teeth:
"'NO MERCY'!"
Then a small, slightly weak voice chimed in on her right side. "Mom! What are you doing?"
Kimiyo hesitated from attacking... but she didn't look at him or respond, her fury trying to maintain control.
"Are you going to kill him?" Yasu continued, shielding his eyes with his left hand and shaking his mother's leg to get her attention. "But you're a doctor, right?" the boy reminded her. "You always told me doctors aren't supposed to kill!"
And then a somewhat weary Imako appeared on her left side. "Look," the girl began quickly, "we're okay, right? We're okay, so you don't have to kill him, right, Mom?"
She grabbed and pulled anxiously at the base of Kimiyo's raised arm, squeezing her eyes tightly shut against the blinding mass of energy at the arm's peak. "DON'T do this! You're NOT a murderer! You know if you do this, you won't be able to forgive yourself! You'll hate yourself! You know that, right?"
Kimiyo still refused to respond. But her teeth began to loosen. And her narrowed, enraged eyes began to soften and well up. And her red world began to fade to normal. And she didn't fire, either.
"Mom! Wake up! Please!" Yasu called, shaking his mother's leg more insistently.
"Mom!" Imako repeated, yanking her mother's arm harder.
Kimiyo's tears burst their banks. She let the energy in her hand dissipate. She released the unconscious villain. And she fell to one knee and swept both her children up in one big emotional embrace.
"I was afraid... I would lose you," she managed between sobs. "I was so afraid..."
Imako lowered herself to one knee as well, and breathed a sigh of relief. "We're okay, Mom," she confirmed again, closing her own arms around her mother. "We're okay!"
"Right!" agreed Yasu happily, adding his own hug.
The three held each other for what seemed like a long time. The stars, without the strong city lights to repel them, shone down on the Hoshi family. Kimiyo reveled in her children's love.
But then she remembered all that had just happened. And her expression dampened to regret.
All this destruction. Lives and livelihoods ruined. Imako and Yasu almost killed.
'All this... for a name?' she thought. 'Maybe... maybe I should just change my name...' But, given both this defeat and the last one, would even a name change dissuade this man from coming back?
Then they heard a faint sound.
A clap.
And then another, louder.
And then a louder one, quicker, until the clapping grew into a one-person ovation.
And they saw a figure begin to appear, a short distance in front of them.
A glowing, ghostly figure.
With chains around him.
And the same costume as Arthur, right down to the fin.
Kimiyo's eyes narrowed. She hadn't killed the man, so how did he become a ghost? Quickly releasing Imako and Yasu, she jumped to her feet. The two children instinctively backed behind their mother, without a word.
'It doesn't matter how he's doing this,' the heroine told herself. 'Apparently, this fight isn't over yet.' She began to draw in power...
"Wait!" the ghost called out in English. "If you power up, I'll disappear! I just want to talk to you!"
Kimiyo stopped the power flow, but she didn't let go of what she had already taken in. "Who are you?" she demanded to know.
The ghost approached slowly, and offered a friendly hand.
"My name is Jacob Finlay, and I am Doctor Light."
Kimiyo frowned, unwilling to shake his hand. "Oh, really? ANOTHER Dr. Light? How do I know you are who you say you are?"
Jacob pulled back his hand, disappointed. "I was hoping you'd just trust me," he responded glumly.
"Mom," Yasu whispered, "who is he? And what's he saying?"
"I'll tell you later," Kimiyo answered, her eyes not leaving the glowing figure for even an instant.
Imako smiled and whispered to the boy, "Good thing I'M old enough to take English class."
Yasu smirked and responded, "Good thing I'M not BARELY PASSING English class."
Imako grumbled. "Why, you little brat..."
"QUIET!" hissed their mother.
"I've learned about you through Arthur," Jacob began, smiling. "You've helped save the universe. You joined the Justice League. You LED a Justice League team! Everything I wanted to do as Dr. Light and more, you've accomplished!"
Kimiyo grinned in self-satisfaction. "Well, you don't have to emphasize the Justice League part," she interjected a little ruefully.
Jacob continued, "But most importantly, you've been a hero. I didn't create the Dr. Light name and costume for a villain like Arthur to use. It's supposed to be a hero's legacy." He turned to Kimiyo. "And I'm glad the legacy found a living hero worthy of the name."
He paced around Arthur's motionless body, looking daggers at the man. "But you should have killed him and been done with it. I managed it once, and after he got out of Hell, I've been trying to do it again for years."
"NO," Kimiyo suddenly asserted, startling Jacob into stopping. "Among other things, I am a medical doctor. I have a responsibility not to kill. I simply lost myself for a moment, and I'm extremely glad these two managed to talk me down from it." She proudly put a hand on each of her children's shoulders.
Then she glared at the ghost, eyebrows intensely furrowed. "I do NOT condone murder, Mr. Finlay, not of anyone, not by anyone."
"Are you kidding! He raped that woman, he tried to kill your kids just now... he had a hand in killing ME! Not to mention all the times he's attacked members of the Justice League or the Titans! He DESERVES to die!"
She repeated herself, with emphasis: "Not of ANYone. Not by ANYone. EVER."
The two Drs. Light stared at each other, with nary a word for several seconds.
"...all right..." Jacob slowly relented. "...I think I should go."
Then he extended his hand again. "But remember, if Arthur ever comes back to attack you again, you have a friend running right beside him."
The heroine had her doubts about that. Nevertheless, she offered her own hand in return. "I'll keep that in mind. Goodbye, Mr. Finlay."
Jacob received her hand and passed through it as he disappeared. "Goodbye..."
Kayo Yamaguchi's reporter instinct prodded her to descend on the scene. Still, she paused to think about this - approaching such a temperamental, unpredictable woman after all that had happened today. The outburst during the interview... The reports on her encounter with Wonder Woman... And especially that unbelievably vicious attack on the male Dr. Light...
But she beckoned to her cameraman. "Let's go. We can't pass up a chance like this..." here she produced a pen and notepad from her suit pocket, "...even if I have to write it all down.
"Excuse me! Dr. Light!" she called, trying hard to hide her remaining trepidation. "I want to talk to you!"
Kimiyo managed a weak smile as the two approached. "Hello, Yamaguchi-san. Actually, I'm glad you're here. I have an important message to deliver."
"But I have to know... have you really quit the Justice League? And why are you using your children to help you if it's clear that they don't have any superpowers?" the reporter asked, pointing at Imako and Yasu.
"AGAIN with the irrelevant questions..." the heroine warned, motioning the children to move away. Kimiyo did note, however, that the reporter made no mention of the ghost. Apparently, she hadn't seen him or heard Kimiyo talking to him. That made things easier.
Yamaguchi visibly flinched from the perceived threat. "...okay...never mind..." she replied weakly, waving her hands in surrender. She then held up her notepad. "But... can I get that message from you, at least?"
"No need to write it down," Kimiyo assured her. She produced a bit of energy between her thumb and forefinger, and gently flicked it into the camera and the microphone.
Kimiyo began to emit a soft, warm glow, lighting the area around them. Then she began, addressing the camera directly.
"Please pay attention, because I am only going to make this statement ONCE.
She pointed to Arthur, some distance away. "Tell my 'friend' here when he wakes up.
"Tell my so-called 'friends' in the Justice League.
"I want the WHOLE WORLD put on notice.
"I will NOT be changing my name. That would be running from this man. I will NEVER, EVER run from him. Not in battle, and not in name, either.
"Therefore, I will NOT be changing my name. He will have to change HIS.
"And if he dares to challenge me for the name again and again, I will humiliate him again and again, just like this time.
Jacob's words filled Kimiyo's mind for a split-second. She didn't agree with his murderous intentions. She didn't even know if he was who he claimed to be.
Still, his message far outshone these concerns.
"The name of Dr. Light WILL be a HERO'S legacy!"
At that, she handed over the microphone and dramatically flew away, as the camera followed her.
Yamaguchi took over. "Bold words! Rest assured that we will be watching to see if she can fulfill them. With the evil Dr. Light defeated, she appears to be well on her way."
Once Kimiyo was sure that the camera was no longer on her, she landed and began to walk towards her wayward children...
"Ummm... maybe we should make that trip to the middle of the ocean NOW..." Imako nervously offered to her brother.
"It would be safer..." agreed Yasu, taking out the teleporter.
Kimiyo swiped the device from her son's hand, and quickly pressed some keys. "Go HOME," she instructed them. "I'll deal with you later." She returned the teleporter to Yasu and stepped back.
"Ummm... we stopped you from killing that other Dr. Light, sooo... you'll go easy on us, right?" Imako asked, flashing an eager smile.
Kimiyo met that smile with a small one of her own. "I'll think about it."
As the device's energy engulfed the two children, Imako held up the victory sign and grinned triumphantly at her brother. "So you got lucky..." Yasu spat out teasingly, as they disappeared.
With Arthur dropped off at the metahuman prison in Antarctica, the Slab, Kimiyo re-entered the Tokyo city limits. She soared over to the peak of Tokyo Tower, and hovered just above its tip.
And as she looked over the city, one thought rang out in her head, as loudly and proudly as if she had shouted it:
'My name is Kimiyo Hoshi, and I am Doctor Light!'
End