Chapter 3: After Effect

"Pain it was all consuming. Stretching over my entire frame. How can anyone bare it when they loose the one person that... made them feel... alive."

-Akane Yagami-

The funeral was a short time later and it was as one would expect. Everyone was dressed in black and people were crying over his loss. He had been cremated as per his request and a picture of him was right next to the bronze urn that would go to Toshi. The sad atmosphere in the room was almost choking as people wept for the lost of a friend, coworker, or family depending on how people saw him. His presence was dearly missed.

Akane had not said a word to anyone nor had she given any sort of expression for the last week. It was like she already had died or as if he mind couldn't process what had happened to Satoru. "Akane... Akane... can you hear me?" a voice said.

Her empty eyes slowly looked up at the one who had spoken and she found herself gazing up at Toshi. He was in a black suit and looked to much like his brother, but his figures were a bit softer and not as masculine as his brother's. Looking at him now made her heart hurt more that it already did and it knocked her out of her dazed state of being. How could I have forgotten... Toshi? Akane questioned herself in her mind before hugged him. "I'm sorry, Toshi..." Were her first words in days.

"Hey, it's not your fault, sis. This is all Kira's doing." He told her as he held her back and buried his face in the crook of her neck. She could feel his tears as he soaked the jacket that went with her black dress. Her gaze looked upon his golden hair with sadness as she ran her fingers through his hair to comfort him.

After a whiled Akane pulled away with a determined look with her eyes as she stared into his own, "I'll catch Kira and I'll bring him to justice. I swear. Don't worry Toshi I'll take care of everything just go to school and be a normal kid, okay?" She said only loud enough for Toshi to hear her.

He looked taken aback by her sudden change as he saw the anger behind her determined eyes, "What are you going to do, Akane?" he asked as he eyed her with a somber gaze that broke her heart.

"I'm going to raise some hell and bring a certain murderer to justice," She told him as she turned and left not staying for the rest of the funeral. She needed to start right away there was no time for this. More people were mourning just like they are and she had decided to place her energy and fury in catching and putting an end to Kira.

….

Akane sat in her room alone a small shiny laptop on her lap as her hands tapped on its keyboard and she glared at her computer screen with resolve in her gaze. "Akane why are you using a laptop over your desktop?" Donovan asked.

She didn't look at him as she continued to work on her laptop, "Because no one knows about it. This is my work laptop. Dad doesn't know I work on cold cases time to time for a respectable profit, I might add. I get paid by private customers who want justice for the victims when the police turn up nothing." She informed him as she hacked he father's files with ease and sighed annoyed. "I told him to pick a stronger passwords. Apparently he didn't listen as usual."

"What exactly are you working on? Is this why you took down Satoru's pictures?" He inquired peering over her shoulder a curious expression clear on his slim face. "How wouldn't your father know about this and what happened to Satoru's pictures?"

Akane let out a sigh turning toward Donovan, "If I see his face anymore it just might drive me crazy or I might start thinking irrationally. I really need to focus on this case and treat it as any other. I can't have my emotions getting in way. So, yes. It is why I took down his pictures and hidden them away. As for what I am doing. I wanted to see what the police have on Kira before I start a real investigation and the reason my father doesn't know is because I use an alias like this L does. I keep my identity a secret with a voice changer and when I met someone in person I keep my face hidden. I go by Detective Tenshi. A name I choose pacifically because it means Angel. No one knows if I'm a man or woman while I'm disguised and sometimes it's useful being 5'6 though I put heels into my disguise so to make myself just slightly taller. Either way I worked hard on Tenshi's rep and I'm going to make great use of it now." She informed him.

He nodded understandingly of her situation, "I see very clever and wise of you. I have to say it's good to see you talking again. You were making me depressed, my lady." Donovan informed her with a small smile. He didn't like her suffering it wasn't something he ever wanted to see again. He knew Satoru was going to go that day and a part of him wasn't there because he didn't want to watch it at all, but he could just stay put when he heard her scream that day. She was rocking herself back and forth when he found her. He could hear her muttering and pleading for Satoru not to leave her. The sound of her cries of loss would haunt him for the rest of his life and he knew it too.

She gave a curt chuckle, "All I needed was a little motivation and Toshi was the right person to give me that." She read over the files, but the time of the deaths where what caught her attention. "Hey look at this Donovan. The hours of death are between 4 pm and 2am on week days on most days not including holidays. That... sounds like a student's schedule."

"Student's schedule?"

"Yeah like mine. I've already noted he or she is very childish person with an even more childish view of justice and I bet he doesn't like to loss or his execution of Lind L. Tailor suggested as much. So maybe he's around my age or is someone's parent. If he is a student he's likely a top of his class like myself. I'll have to look further into this though. I could be wrong about this... after all this is speculation and it seems even 'L' agrees with me on that according to these notes my father took about the meeting," she said as she leaned back in her chair. "I have to go turn in one of my investigations in an hour or so anyway. I need to get ready. Oh and one more thing, Donovan."

"Yes, my lady? What is it you require?" he asked.

"If I did make the deal for the eyes... would I be able to control when they're working? I don't want to see everyone's names and deaths floating above their head or something all the time. It would get rather annoying." She told him.

"Generally no, but for you I will throw that ability in, my lady." Donovan said and he leaned against the wall looking at her.

"Then I want them, Donovan. Please give me the eyes of the Shinigami." Akane told him.

"Your wish is my command." Donovan said with a deep bow.

….

After several days the killing pattern changed now there was a death every hour on the hour as if he was sending a message that said 'So... what are you going to do about it?'. It was as if he or she was taunting them. Trying to provoke 'L'. However, he didn't know that there was another private investigator on his trail, but this one knew exactly how he was killing them and Akane planned on keeping it that way.

She was dressed in a long black trench coat with sun glasses and a mask on his face with a wired voice changer just under neath. A black hat was on her head as well as her hair was tucked under her coat. "Investigator Tenshi, why do we have the pleasure of your company here today?" A police man named Touta Matsuda asked of her just outside the police station.

He was young with normal Japanese facial features. He was handsome and nearly the same height as Akane was. Though he was no where near as bright. He possessed average intelligence, but he knew his way around a gun pretty well. In fact only a few on the force where a better shot with a pistol.

"Hello, Mr. Matsuda. I heard from a little mouse there's task force after Kira. I was just letting you know. I am also taking this case as well. I know you are in the task force as well. I want you to deliver a message to this 'L' character for me." Akane said her voice hidden by a voice changer.

"Really and that would be?" he asked with surprise in his voice.

"I'm closer to finding Kira than he is and I have knowledge he has yet to acquire. If he wishes this information I will be joining the task force after we met face to face." She told him. "Now good day Touta Matsuda and tell the Chief I left files for him on his desk." Akane said before she left.

….

Akane was looking through the files again and taking apart her gun for cleaning when she noticed something that made her cry out, "Oh hell... that's not good!"

"Is something wrong, my lady?" Donovan asked as he casually looked up from a book with the title 'Pride and Prejudice' on it's cover.

"Yeah, there is!" She replied angrily as she glared at her laptop. "Whoever this Kira is he or she has access to the police records!"

"Like you do, my lady?" He asked raising an eyebrow not really getting her point.

"Well Tenshi has his own passwords and username. I just use dad's because I can download his files without leaving a trace because of the home network... but this is really bad, Donovan. He knew they were expecting him of being a student and just two days later he changes his pattern. That's too quick to be anything else. He's either a cop or cop's family member. It's like he's daring us to find out who he is..." she shook her head. "No. that's not it." Akane thought as she bit her thumb nail. "He want's them to expect him so he..." She smiled then a plan coming to mind as a spiteful filled smirk spread across her face, "can clear his name and all I have to do is wait. Then he'll be mine, but maybe there is a piece I'm missing. Could it be more than just clearing his name? Perhaps he's trying turn the police and 'L' against each other and in the process of the chaos get closer to 'L' to eliminate him... It's what I would do in the same situation. Seems that 'L' is going to need my help more than he knows. That's what I'll do. I'll be using you, 'L', as my bait for now on. I'll make use of this 'L' then crush Kira and I'm curious as to who 'L' actually are. I wonder if he is as smart as he thinks he is and I wonder of his character."

"Revenge is a path that will require two graves." Donovan warned softly, but she still heard him.

"I know. His and mine. It's a sacrifice I'm more than willing to make." She informed him as she cleaned and oiled her 9mm she used for work. Then she began to piece her weapon back together with practiced hands. Her father had taught her everything she knew. As a police chief his daughters were always endanger in some way, but he didn't know she had a gun of her own these days.

"When I say it'll require two graves it doesn't mean I meant yours, my lady," he informed her before returning to book.

Those words gave her pause. What does he mean by that?! She wondered as she cocked her gun and placed it into the false bottom of the drawer next to her Death Note that she hadn't touched since the day she received it then she quickly closed it. She couldn't bring herself to touch it especially after what happened to Satoru. Truth be told... she was afraid to. Akane was afraid that it would change her for the worse if she did and make her into something like Kira causing her to loose a piece of herself. There was something about it... the Death Note. It wanted her to hold it and try to kill someone herself as if she had done so is an alternate reality, but she just couldn't do it. Her mind was made up on the subject. She refused to ever fall to the level of that murderer Kira.