STRAWBERRY MEMORIES- ICHIGO NO KIOKU
Chapter XI
"A choice"
I do not own Death note
After five minutes lying completely stunned on her sofa, Misa heard the bell ring repeatedly.
She immediately wondered who could be so late in the night and listlessly got up to go and open.
As soon as she moved the hook on the lock, she found herself practically thrown back and all she could see was something black and white that fell on her.
"What the heck ?!"
The girl rubbed her poor aching head trying to focus on the figure that had just jumped over her.
"Misa chan." a deep voice came straight to her face and the model immediately understood who it was.
"Eru chan! What the hell are you up to?"
Then the young woman shouted, moving away from him as if he was on fire.
She saw the poor detective woke up with a start when the hysterical sound of her voice arrived to him.
"Then?"
She shouted again getting up and standing over the poor crouching figure.
L stared at her for another second, then without saying a word threw himself on her, rummaging in the girl's leather jacket.
"What the ..."
She saw him take out the small microphones from her pocket, then lift them between his index finger and thumb with extreme care and examine them for a long time, only 1 mm away from his pale face. Once having analysed them sufficiently Misa saw, but only for a moment, an almost disappointed look in his eyes.
Expression she had seen in his face only when he was run out of candy.
"Eru chan, will you explain to me what's going on? Why did you go up here?"
The girl continued saying, moderating her tone a little more.
"But I mean, are you crazy?!"
He simply answered as moving the black eyes from the microphones to her.
"What?! Are you kidding me? You are asking ME if I'm crazy?! Is not Misa the one who attacked Eru chan in the middle of the night!"
She complained crossing her arms.
"Don't you get it?"
He asked again with his eyes wider than usual.
"Of course I don't understand!" Misa replied exasperated "Otherwise I wouldn't have asked you for explanations!"
He sighed irritably and spun around.
Misa saw him unwrapping a lollipop very slowly.
"You shouldn't have let him do it, you should have been more careful."
She heard him whisper as he rolled the lollipop between his fingers without even tasting it.
A very unusual behaviour for a sweet addicted like him.
"What?"
The model replied after realizing what he was talking about.
"And then ... what does this have to do with the investigation?" She continued to say blushing.
"The bouquet of flowers! Let me see it."
He said suddenly, without answering her, as he approached the girl, he had a more serious look and had decidedly lowered his tone of voice.
Misa tried to retort indignantly, but he motioned with a finger over her lips, to remain quiet. And as soon as he located the bouquet in the centre of the table, he immediately headed to it.
"What are you doing? Why do you want to ruin it?"
The poor petals ended up one by one on the ground, Misa wondered how she would manage to clean up all that disaster afterwards.
"Nothing ..."
She still heard him whisper from behind.
The girl approached him slowly and peered apprehensive at his face.
"What's wrong?" L looked down then raised his gaze and looked her straight in the eye.
"Misa ... Kira killed 30 FBI agents today."
The girl opened her eyes widely.
"When?"
She tried to ask, starting to tremble.
"Just before your date, unfortunately we only kept an eye on Light when he went out with you, but before we know he was at the mall buying these flowers."
The girl looked at what remained of that poor bouquet on the ground.
"I thought he put a few microphones on you taking advantage of the date's opportunity."
He justified himself by directing his gaze towards the daisies.
"What are the chances that he did this for real?"
The girl asked looking up at him.
"We have to watch the surveillance video first."
The boy replied.
"Video?"
Misa asked puzzled.
"The police have all the surrounding surveillance cameras at their disposal, you should know."
"And how did you manage to be so reckless anyway? Didn't you think in the least that it could be dangerous?"
"What could I have known? I didn't think he could do such a thing, he didn't do it after all, so ... "
The model replied moving her gaze down, she didn't understand why but she felt terribly guilty, especially under his gaze.
L was staring at her and didn't seem to want to stop.
Could it be that all he could think of were just the possible microphones?
When he had gone up to her apartment, she had hoped that he had done it for her, but apparently nobody really cared about her, everyone was concentrated only exclusively on the Kira case.
Misa did not exist, only Megumi Kurenai existed and the part that she had to play.
"Are you ok Misa chan?"
L took a step towards her and the girl noticed that, taken from the race, he hadn't had time to put on his shoes.
"Why did you come all this way over here?"
Then she asked looking at him straight in the eye.
She saw the detective back off and then, after weighing the question for a long time, put his hands in his pockets carelessly.
"I had to make sure he didn't had frame you."
Misa squinted.
"It's not like you to risk so much for a simple reckless girl, not even five minutes had passed, you could very well have sent someone else. Furthermore, anyone in this palace could clearly see who you are, even if it's dark."
She said smugly, crossing her arms.
The boy looked at her for a while without commenting, then, as if he hadn't heard anything of what the model had just said, he turned.
"You happen to have a laptop, Misa chan?"
The girl became enraged and stepped on the daisies on the ground.
"Did you listen to me stupid panda guy?!"
She almost screamed as she came up behind him.
The boy looked at her sideways and kept walking.
"Of course Misa chan, but for now I would like to postpone the answer, we have many more important things to do, I remind you that if we do not intervene immediately other agents will die."
"Bullshit ... I know very well that if he had to kill them all, now there are none left, now they know of his existence, killing one every now and then would be useless, he would only waste precious time."
The blonde answered, raising her face with pride.
L looked at her in surprise.
"Sometimes Misa chan speaks as if she knows a lot more than I do."
He answered after a while as he was bending his head to one side.
"But there would be nothing to unite you at him anyway ..."
"What?"
Misa asked, trying to contain the fear in her bones.
"Even if you had to do with all of this mess, I don't think you would carry on for much longer."
He continued his reasoning without answering her.
"You're right ..."
She cut him short as she started to raise up the flowers, while she felt the detective's gaze pierce her back. She really hoped that L didn't want to continue that talk.
"So, this computer?"
He asked again, staying where he was.
Misa sighed, apparently, he would never confess the real reason why he had rushed to her apartment.
"It's in my room, first room on the left, above the bed."
She replied throwing the crumpled petals into the garbage can.
"That was close, right Misa?"
An easily recognizable voice came behind her and Rem stood before her with a frown.
"Try to be more careful next time."
"I am…"
Misa whispered, picking up a scoop to clean.
"Not only with L, you have to be careful especially with Light. I believe that L doesn't trust anyone, not even you, but despite everything he has great confidence, I believe that among those who could betray him you would be the one who would hurt him the most."
The shinigami continued saying, looking down at her. Sometimes she thought it would be better to be human as L, so she could be closer to the girl, but she immediately regretted her crazy thoughts and tried to push her feelings away as much as she could.
"I don't believe it at all. He only thinks of his work and I am nothing but a poorly gifted collaborator."
The girl sighed looking at the spot where they had both fallen to the ground.
"A co-worker so uninteresting as to induce him to take five flights of stairs just two minutes after your lips have been touched by others."
The shinigami commented trying to contain her anger.
Misa looked at her apprehensively.
"I don't know ..."
She answered only.
"I just need to be careful and do my job for now."
Said that, she made her way to her room where L was already focusing on the small laptop screen.
"Did you find anything?"
Asked the girl as she was sitting down beside him.
"Aye, look at it."
The boy replied rewinding the tape.
Misa saw a man lying on the ground in front of a train, he was dying, she saw him look up and then collapse on the ground holding his chest.
"He is dead…"
The girl whispered trembling slightly.
"Yes, I noticed it too Misa ..."
The young detective replied rewinding the tape, after observing her reaction.
"Look closer."
He kept saying by restarting the tape.
The girl took a deep breath and looked back at the small screen.
"Seen?"
The detective asked, turning to her.
Misa couldn't take her eyes off the computer.
"I don't know, it just scared me."
The model whispered trembling again.
L looked at her thoughtfully then turned back to the screen.
"Sorry, I didn't think it might scare you."
He whispered, rewinding the tape.
"Anyway, if you are up to look at it, just before he dies, if I zoom in, you can clearly see that he is looking inside the train. Obviously, his killer is inside."
"Do you know who he is?"
Misa asked, still frightened.
"An FBI agent, his name was Reye Penber, we have taken his I.D. directly from the hospital an hour after his death."
Misa struggled to hold back her tears, she knew perfectly well who he was, he was the man in the bus.
Right from the start, when she had sawn the figure on the ground, she had hoped it wasn't him, but apparently, she was wrong.
"But Kira kills from a distance, he doesn't need to get so close, right?"
The girl asked, looking at L with watery eyes.
The detective looked away.
"Apparently Penber had something Kira needed, something he couldn't take from a distance but that forced him to have to get close somehow ..."
"The list of names ..."
The girl whispered shivering.
He nodded impassively.
"Yes, just that."
He commented still looking at the computer.
"Now we have to find out what Light has to do with all of this, the train apparently was headed for the southern part of Shinjuku, the opposite part of the area where the restaurant is located."
"Couldn't he have taken another train later?"
The girl asked calmly.
"Yes, in that case he would have to take a connecting one; and, if that's the case, he should have bought the bouquet earlier, when he was still in the mall. A perfect alibi in case anyone spotted him there."
Misa was even more saddened by this detailed explanation; it had been too good to be true.
"Was he particularly relaxed during the date?"
The detective asked looking at her sideways.
The girl nodded slightly.
"As if nothing and nobody could stop him..."
The boy went on saying in a serious voice.
The girl nodded again.
"So peaceful that he even kissed you."
Misa suddenly blushed.
"He behaves like this because a load has been lifted from him. A guy like him would never get involved emotionally by someone. Love is irrational, and his life is totally built on rationality, he would not like anything to get out of his control."
L went on, looking away from the curious gaze of the model.
"Are you talking about you too, Eru chan?"
The girl asked bending over him.
"He is so like me that a part of me would be almost sorry to find out that he is really Kira. But on the other hand, precisely because he has all these characteristics, I already know that it can only be him."
The boy commented as he is crouching even more and he is putting his thumb to his lips.
Misa felt a sudden urge to hug him tightly, but she knew that it would probably tense up in embarrassment.
Then unexpectedly her lips moved on their own and she said something that she would never have dared to say just before.
Something that unconsciously pushed her to bring her closer to that precious boy.
Something that betrayed the other precious boy.
But unlike the former, the latter was unable to suffer or have feelings.
Or at least that was what she believed ...
"He was the policeman on the bus."
L suddenly turned to her.
"Who?"
He asked knowing already the answer but wanting to hear the confirmation.
The girl took a deep breath and looked at the screen again.
The lips moved by themselves.
"Reye Penber."
Author corner:
What do you think about L's reaction? He is jealous or maybe he is only concerned about the investigations? Let me know!
Now Misa has made a choice… how definitive it is we still don't know, but I anticipate that she will be forced to move to the headquarters! :3
Now I leave you, see you soon!
I hope you keep following me!
Thanks so much to those who follows me!
Juliette.