Austin
Finding out exactly where Jack was hiding out was no small feat, but one thing that Austin's sister constantly did was underestimate him.
The company that Austin worked for was an agency that dealt with secret information. Obtaining it. Exchanging it for money. They were information brokers, to put it lightly. Not everything he did was specifically legal. Yet even with all of the expertise he'd gained from his job, that wasn't how he was able to obtain information on L's true name.
Jack was an expert of keeping herself hidden from the world. She never let anyone get close to her, physically or emotionally. She'd been detached all her life, but it got really bad when their father died. She was a ghost. But the thing was, while Jack was intent to make sure nobody ever knew her, she didn't even know herself.
When Austin was seven, his parents, Elizabeth and Shaun Townsend, brought home a four-year-old girl with white-blond hair and leaf-green eyes. Austin remembered being confused. Didn't babies usually have to spend time in a mother's belly? And weren't they smaller when they first arrived? But here his parents were telling him this was his little sister.
But as Austin grew up, he came to find out exactly why his parents brought this child home. Why she needed to be here.
He didn't learn exactly what his father did for a living until he was eighteen. Austin was more than past the age when he fully understood his sister was adopted. But his parents hadn't told her, or even confirmed it with him. Despite being four when she was taken in, Jack never gave any indication she remembered a life before living with the Townsends. She never mentioned parents or where she was from.
The night Austin's father told him the truth, it had just been the two of them in the house. Austin's mother had taken Jack with her on a business trip to Hawaii. Austin remembered his little sister not being thrilled in the least to go, complaining it was going to be too hot. To be honest, he felt the same and was pleased he got to stay in Canada. However, nasty thunderstorm swept in and stole the power from their home. Candles littered the house and Shaun had found some flashlights. They'd already played through all four of their board games three times each. Without his mother or sister there, Austin got brave enough to finally ask.
"Who are Jack's real parents?"
Shaun had looked at him with a surprised blink, but the shock didn't last long. He sighed and smiled lightly at Austin.
"You are too smart for your own good, Austin," he told him. "You know that I've told you I work a very dangerous job."
Austin had nodded mutely.
"Well, I meet interesting people at my job," he explained. "All over the world, there are people that I have to work with and help and sometimes they help me too."
"Jack says your part of the CIA," Austin said.
Shaun laughed. "Does she?" He shook his head. "She's watched too many action movies."
Austin had seen the way his father looked away though. It was then he knew. He knew that his father's job wasn't just some cop gig. He had too many black suits, too many handguns locked in the garage. He had to be on his computer too often, a computer Austin and Jack weren't allowed to touch and had never been able to hack into. If it wasn't CIA, it was something very close.
"So who are her real parents?" Austin pressed.
Shaun sighed heavily and said, "We adopted your sister from a place called Wammy House. She'd been being taken care of there since she was two. The gentleman that runs the place didn't initially want to adopt her out to your mother and me."
"Why not?" Austin tilted his head.
"Because Wammy House isn't a place that usually adopts out their children," Shaun said. "They are usually raised there. Think of it like an advanced boarding school. But there was a case I was working that led me to work with the owner of it. One of their kids had gone missing along with about twelve other kids in the area."
"Jack?" Austin guessed.
Shaun nodded. "There was a terrorist attack attempt. They were going to use the kids as human shields of sorts. Most of the children were snagged in neighborhoods and parks. So it didn't add up when they went out of their way to break into an orphanage and take a single four-year-old girl. So the owner approached us, knowing we were working on that case and he suggested that the girl was taken by the same people we were after."
"And you believed him?" Austin asked.
Shaun shook his head. "Not at first. But this guy managed to find me and immediately knew who I worked for. What I was. What case I was working. That was impressive enough as it was. He even took me to Wammy House and walked me around, showing me the forced open window near the girl's room as well as her records they had for her in their file room. She had started showing IQ levels far above what was average for her age. But that was the thing about Wammy House. They took in the brightest and smartest kids. So it still didn't make sense they chose her of all the kids there. The only thing unique about her was she was the youngest kid at the orphanage."
Austin observed as his father leaned back in the couch with a low breath.
"The people who were planning that attack weren't just out to make chaos alone. There were so many other plans they had. And somehow, somewhere along the line, they'd found out about Wammy House. About the incredibly intelligent kids inside."
"Why did they take her?" Austin asked.
"Well, it was more complicated than we expected" Shaun sighed. "Jack was still young, but she was dangerously smart. At first, I thought they intended to raise her as their own agent. Maybe make her a weapon. When we finally found their location, they made it impossible to take any of them alive."
"Were the kids okay?" Austin whispered.
Shaun nodded. "Yeah. Yeah we got there in time to save all of them. But we were a long ways from Wammy House. Two days drive to be exact. So while some my coworkers set to getting all the other kids home, I was tasked with getting little Jack back to her orphanage."
He let out a long breath, making the candles on the table flicker as the air passed over them.
"Somehow, I bonded with her during that time," he said. "I think it might have been a mix of things. I hadn't seen you for six months. I missed being around my son and being a father. And Jack took to me quickly. She was so shy around everyone else, but with me it was different. She babbled and cooed to me. Even though she was only four, she was forming complex sentences with even more complex vocabulary."
"So did you ask if you could adopt her, then?" Austin queried.
Shaun shook his head. "Actually, when the owner saw the bond we developed... he asked me to."
Austin blinked, confused. "But I thought you said they didn't adopt kids out."
"They didn't," Shaun said. "At first I was confused. I tried to get more information from him, but he wouldn't give me anything. It wasn't until about two months after we brought her home he sent me an email."
Austin had never seen his father look so conflicted. Shaun leaned forward, clasping his hands before him and pressing his lips to his knuckles. His blue eyes reflected the flickering candlelight.
"Austin, you do understand that you can never tell you sister about this, right?" Shaun asked, voice hardly more than a whisper.
"Yeah, of course," Austin said. "I haven't told her she's adopted yet, have I?"
"You don't understand." Shaun turned to face him. "This could... it could be very dangerous. But... I won't be around forever. Neither will your mother. So if it does come down to it, you're going to have to be the one to look after her."
Austin frowned and furrowed his brow. "Jeez, dad, you're making it sound really..."
"Bad?" Shaun finished for him. "That's because it is. The terrorist that orchestrated that whole thing with kidnapping all those kids? We never caught him. He's still at large. He's taken the nickname 'Moriarty.' Perhaps because he's based in England or maybe he's just a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I don't know how or when the owner of Wammy House got the information but... that man is Jack's biological father."
Austin remembered the sensation of the floor falling out from beneath him. Of his legs going numb. Jack's real dad was a terrorist? Holy hell.
"And that stunt isn't the only thing he's pulled," Shaun murmured. "He's been involved with just about every damn criminal organization you can think of. There's no concrete proof, or even any record of his true name, but many believe he's behind over four hundred deaths, eighteen counts of major fraud, countless robberies from banks, stores, and even residential areas. His main playground was London, though. So I think the owner of Wammy House believed Jack would be safe in Canada, since her father had managed to figure out she was in that orphanage."
It was total madness—like shit from a movie. But it was then that Austin started to wonder about things his sister would do when she was first taken into their home. He remembered her playing with stuffed animals—taking a dark fluffy puppy and dubbing it 'L Lawliet.' When he asked her about it, she'd gotten mad.
"Why were you eavesdropping?" she demanded. Like Shaun had said, her vocabulary was not suited for a four-year-old. "You can't tell. He told me because he trusted me. I'm his friend—and friends don't betray each other! So if you ever tell anyone about him, I'll be mad, even if you are my brother."
It was such a strange name to call something, and she'd reacted in such a strange way, that Austin never forgot it. So when she called him three years ago, telling him about a place called Wammy House and begging him to go there to see if he could find the famous detective L's true name... it finally clicked.
Jack had known L during her time at Wammy House, but somehow, she'd forgotten all about it. Perhaps she blocked it out. Austin almost told her then and there, but he had made a promise to his father. So he agreed. He even got on the stupid plane and flew all the way to England. He even found the building, though there was no getting in. He stared at it for a while, wondering what his sister went through there. Then, he called his sister and told her the name she'd told him a mere week after she'd come home with Shaun.
Now that their father was gone, Austin wanted to keep his vow. He would take care of Jack, because no matter where she came from, she was still his sister. His Booger-Bear. So when Clyde told him she was in Japan, it was finally confirmed that she was working on the Kira case. Kira was perhaps the most dangerous criminal in human history—even more than Jack's biological father.
Austin had pulled every single one of his contacts. He used all the resources he possibly could, checking every possible variable. Security cameras in Tokyo, hotel records, he even got in contact with a few spies his company had posing as cabbies in the area. By himself, he'd never be able to follow up on all of these. But he had an entire army of people who did this shit for a living, just like he did.
It took a week to find her. Between people cross-referencing the photos of Jack Austin provided them to all the security camera footage they could and tracking down the name 'Nina Forner' in hotel records, his people were able to pinpoint her location. She was changing hotels every three days. But she'd only just checked into her current one a few hours before Austin got the report. It was enough time for him to fly over to Tokyo and find her.
Of course, pulling this kind of shit wasn't exactly condoned in his work. It wasn't something he was allowed to use for personal reasons. He'd had to tell his contacts that this 'Nina Forner' was in possession of sensitive information. The only person who knew the truth was Clyde.
And now... now he was here.
Austin stared down at his little sister as she blinked up at him, her face slack with a mixture of awe and horror. Her hair was shorter than the last time he'd seen her. This was the first time he'd seen it blue. He wondered what made her choose that color. Her leaf-green eyes were blinking rapidly as she staggered a step back.
"You-you can't be here," she rasped.
"Does that mean I can come in?" Austin asked her.
"Who is it?" The question was asked in Japanese. Fortunately, with all of Jack's manga and anime obsession, it was one of the languages he elected to learn with her. A man came up behind Jack. He was tall and had a thick afro of dark hair and plump lips. His hand was going toward his hip where Austin spied a gun holster.
"Aizawa, wait!" Jack cried, reverting her own language to Japanese as she turned in time to spot his motion. "He—we can trust him. I don't know how in the living, breathing hells he got here or how he knew where to go, but..."
"Nina, I don't understand, who the hell is this guy?" the man she'd called Aizawa demanded.
"I must admit, I am quite curious myself..."
Another person came to Jack's side. He had to be around her age, bearing dark, layered hair and an ashen complexion. Shadowy circles hugged the lower lids of his eyes. His posture was slouched and he wore a long-sleeve white shirt and jeans that seemed too big on his thin frame. His gray eyes examined Austin so thoroughly that it made him feel naked.
"Friggin' hell, this is so... shit." Jack reached out and grabbed Austin by the hem of his sleeve, yanking him inside. The door closed behind him. "Aussie, what the actual hell are you doing here?!"
"Aussie?" the pale man echoed. A gleam of understanding hit his dark gaze as he looked back to Austin.
"A nickname," Jack explained carelessly.
"How do we know we can trust this guy?" Another man demanded. He, like the one called Aizawa, wore a gray suit and had a gun holster. He seemed younger though, and had a mop of black hair that hung down toward his eyes. Austin was going to guess they were cops. "How does he know you and how did he know where to find us?"
"Through a lot of creative string-pulling, I'd assume," Jack sighed. "And we can trust him because he's my brother."
The young man beside her nodded. "I assumed as much," he murmured.
"That still doesn't answer how he came to find us." This came from the third suited man in the room. He appeared to be the eldest, with gray cresting his hair and mustache. "Did you call him?"
"Of course not!" Jack cried. "He... must have put two and two together."
"Regardless, we don't have time to approach this particular issue right this moment," the pale man said. "Nina, please have him wait in your room. We can let him out once Light has left. This detail would be best kept from him for now until we know what all it entails."
"Yeah, probably for the best," Jack said. She fixed her eyes on Austin and started speaking English again. "Aussie, please go hang out in my bedroom, it's over here." She began walking toward a door toward the east side of the room. "We're expecting sensitive company and you're not invited."
"Jack—" Austin began.
Jack held up a finger to him. "Don't call me that here. It's Nina. And we'll have to think of a better name for your stupid ass too." She shook her head. "You shouldn't have come here, Aussie."
He followed her to the room and obediently stepped inside. Jack looked him over for a moment before saying, "My laptop is in there, you know the password."
"I do?" Austin raised a brow.
Jack nodded. "You do."
Then she shut the door in his face.
Jack
Holy hell.
Out of all the stupid wild cards that could be thrown my way, the last one I expected was my brother. I turned away from my bedroom door, my heart a pinball in my ribcage. The officers all looked baffled and confused. L, meanwhile, had his brows pinched an low. The expression he gained when he was trying to solve a problem.
"Oh ho ho," Nox chortled as he sloped toward me. "Now this... this is good. How complicated can we make this? Do you have any ex-lovers to add to the mix, Jack?"
I shot him a scathing look before fixating my attention back on the task force. "I'll drill him for how the hell he got here later," I assured them.
"It must have been quite the feat if he didn't have assistance from you," L pointed out. His glance toward me was questioning.
"I already said I didn't call him!" I barked back. "Or message him or—I didn't tell him where I was or what I was doing, okay? I haven't talked to him for almost a year!"
"Is there some conflict between the two of you?" Matsuda asked warily.
"No it's not like that," I sighed. "Look. Let's please just put my family life aside for now. I do not want anyone knowing he's here, especially Light." I cast a small apologetic glance toward Yagami. "No offense, Chief."
"No, I understand," Yagami admitted. "If you have even the slightest suspicions of anyone, you wouldn't want them to know you have family nearby."
"Family that knows your real name," Aizawa added. "Yeah... yeah I can see how that would put you on edge."
"As Nina said, let's save this conversation for later," L intervened. "We need to focus on the task ahead of us."
I went back to the couch and flopped down beside the detective. My legs lost feeling the moment they weren't needed. Austin... what the hell was he doing here? Good intentions or not, there were so many ways he could not only jeopardize this case, but get himself killed. I wasn't a moron, there was only one way he could have figured out where to find me and that was by utilizing all of his resources at his job. The job that he held with some agency even I didn't know the name of because I knew if they somehow figured out it was me poking around about them it could get Austin in serious trouble.
I was willing to bet my entire Pokemon card collection that they didn't know or approve that he'd pulled that kind of crap just to find his baby sister. If they figured it out he could be discretely murdered or locked away for the rest of his life. I always knew that Austin's job was dangerous and that was one of the main reasons why I didn't want him near me when I got my Death Note. He had enough shit to deal with. Not to mention... maybe if I just vanished without a trace, he'd be too pissed to be upset when I ended up getting killed in this stupid mission of mine.
Running my hands through my hair, I tried to ground myself. To recenter and focus on the task ahead of me. Austin would have to wait.
Especially since there was a new knock on the door.
This time, Yagami rose and headed for the door. Maybe it was obvious that my legs were not going to carry me for a while. A heartbeat later, the Chief returned with his son in tow. Light looked pleasant as usual. He passed a warm smile to each of us as he sat down in the open chair we'd left for him.
Uki might have used that chair if he was still alive, I realized. Fuck, now was no time to think about that either. I was fairly certain that Ukita would be livid if he knew I was letting his death cloud my mind.
"S'up Light?" I greeted him in English and flashed him a wide smile. The officers actually appeared surprised. Perhaps they didn't realize that I spent most of my life living an act.
"Hello again, Nina," Light replied in my native language to me. "It's nice to see you today. You look lovely." He smiled again.
I wasn't expecting the compliment. I waved him off. "That's my secret, captain, I'm always lovely."
Light let out a small laugh but I could see the slight confusion in his eyes. He didn't get the reference. First no one plays Fallout 4, now no one has seen the Avengers. A real tragedy, to be honest.
The officers around the room introduced themselves with their aliases. Even Chief Yagami did. Light frowned at them all and said, "I see. Should I be going by a different last name too as well then?"
"That would be for the best," L said. "If you don't mind, I'll stick to calling you Light."
"Same," I added, reverting to Japanese as the room did.
"I'd like to start by having you go over all the information we've gathered so far," L said, getting to his feet. "I'd also like you to review these videos..." The detective padded across the room where the TV was set up with all the files and other evidence we had scattered on the table in front of it. L tapped the tapes with an index finger. "They were sent to Sakura TV along with the ones they broadcast, but these ones were never aired."
Light stood and went over to him. Seeing them side by side increased the contrast between the two. Light with his perfect posture and hair. Then there was L, slouched and with his hands shoved in his pockets.
"For security purposes, you cannot take notes nor can any of this leave the room," L instructed.
"Makes sense," Light agreed. "I'll do my best, Ryuga."
"Mm, I must ask that you refer to me as Ryuzaki from now on," L said.
"Of course." Light glanced back toward me. "Are you still Nina?"
"Yeah, I like to keep things simple." I shrugged and smiled.
"That's a lie," Nox said with a chuckle.
I resisted throwing a pillow at him.
The rest of us were silent as Light watched the first of the four videos the Second Kira had sent Sakura TV. L hovered the closest to him, a finger pressed to his lips. Ordinarily I would get up and smack his hand away from his mouth to keep him from being tempted to bite his nails. If only my legs would work. I couldn't help but cast a few furtive glances toward my bedroom door. With Light's back to me I didn't feel worried about him seeing them.
Damn it, Austin, why did he have to show up here and now of all the times and places?
Not only was I going to be in constant distress that Austin was going to get himself killed, but I also had the delightful time of being stuck with Nox, Light, and my big brother hovering around while I was just accepting the fact that I had feelings for L.
I couldn't have picked a better time to finally realize I had a heart and it yearned for a quirky pale detective.
"This is bullshit," I breathed in English.
Out of the task force, only Matsuda seemed to hear me. He looked back and his eyes darted between me and my bedroom door then to L. He ended up giving me an encouraging smile, as if to tell me that everything would be okay. He seemed to notice my entire dilemma, at least the romantic one. I smiled back at him but I was fairly certain it came out as a grimace. Sweet Matsuda. Maybe I'll ask him for advice on how to deal with boys.
When the video finally finished, L approached Light, leaning down to look into his face. "So, what did you make of that?" he asked.
From where I was, I could see Light's hands on the armrests of his chair. As he got to his feet, I couldn't help but notice how his fingers dug into them, his knuckles paling for just a moment. Odd. Was that an angry reaction?
If it was, it could be taken in many ways. Perhaps Light was just the son of a police chief hoping to become a detective one day and he couldn't believe the atrocities that Kira committed. Perhaps he was irritated because he just realized it was another test. Or maybe Light was mad because this knock-off wannabe just made this public declaration that he was Kira when his presentation and tact was nothing like the real Kira. It was an insult. An atrocity to everything Kira stood for.
Either way, when Light rose, so did I. My legs found their feeling again. I pushed Austin to the back of my mind and slammed the door. Right now, all of my focus had to be here. With L. With Light.
"Honestly?" Light sighed as he looked from face to face. "I don't think this is Kira."
There was a collective shock sent throughout the room like static; raised brows and slack jaws marked its travel. Even I pinched my lips together in a thoughtful frown. Huh. What a twist.
"Is that so?" L asked, tilting his head. He was the only one that kept his expression akin to stone.
"Yeah," Light insisted. "I mean, it's totally out of his character. He'd never chosen those kinds of victims before. Not to mention, the showmanship of this presentation... well..." His gaze went back to the TV.
"Pretty crappy, huh?" I said as I strode up to stand beside L.
Light looked back at me. "That's one way to put it. It's certainly lacking any sort of flare. I feel like if the real Kira made these videos, he'd at least have a higher quality camera and voice distorter."
"I agree with you," L said. "This is the same conclusion that Nina and myself came to when we first saw the videos."
"Wait, so if you already thought that, then was this just another one of your tests?" Light asked as he folded his arms.
"Ding, ding, ding!" I sang. "We've got a winner, folks. What's his prize?" I pointed at L. "If my beautiful assistant could raise curtain number one?"
L's mouth twitched a bit with a smile. "Beautiful. That's a new one."
"I have a collection of compliments and sweet talking stored up just for you, Ryu." I winked at him. "As long as you keep pumping me full of milk tea."
"It's royal milk tea," L corrected. "We've been over this. Only in England is there milk tea and even then it's called tea with milk—"
I made a fart noise in my palm to interrupt him.
"If we could maybe get back on task?" Light asked with a laugh. He seemed to be putting up an amused front, but I got the sense he was annoyed with us as his eyes darted between L and me.
L cleared his throat. "Mm, yes, of course. It's settled. The first thing we need to do is take care of this imposter. We can gather from their actions that they idolize the real Kira but lack his sophistication."
"There's a good chance they might even obey the original." I laced my hands behind my head and grinned. "If that's the case, we could totally lure this douche canoe into a trap."
"How?" Matsuda asked.
"By making a reply video from the real Kira," L explained.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Light admitted. "You literally took the words right out of my mouth."
"Did we?" I asked. "You don't seem the type to use the phrase 'douche canoe,' just saying."
"That isn't what I meant," Light sighed. "It's just that this is the perfect plan for us to find the imposter."
"Oh, another thing, Light," L put in. "I would like you to play the part of Kira in this video."
Light's eyes shot wide. "Me? As Kira?" His words were hesitant and stilted.
"Well, duh," I said. "You're honestly the only we could think of that could do it well."
"Why not one of you?" Light asked. "You're both so intelligent and you're the ones who have been working the case from the beginning..."
"True, but we have more bias than you, I think," I said. "After all, this shit got friends of ours killed."
"I see..." Light looked at his feet for a moment. I examined his face, hoping for any sort of clue that damned him as Kira. But he merely looked conflicted and uncomfortable, which was believable enough for the police chief's son after being asked to participate in such a way.
"In any case, we don't have time to waste," L pointed out. "Can you get started right away?"
Light finally looked back up and he nodded. His face was now set in determination. "Yes. If it helps us catch this murderer and the real Kira in the long run, I'm more than happy to help."
"All right. You two do that, I'm going to take a quick shower, if you don't mind," I said as I stretched and headed for my room. I had to talk to Austin. It looked like Light was going to be here a bit longer than I anticipated. Best to let him
know whole trying to get some answers.
No one argued with me and when I reached my bedroom door, I was careful to slip inside without anyone able to see within. Nox had to phase through the door I shut it so fast behind me.
Austin was seated at my desk playing solitaire on my laptop. He glanced back when I entered and opened his mouth. I quickly pressed my finger to my lips before he could talk. I darted into my bathroom and started the shower water. It would make those outside think I'd started and mask my voice. When I went back into my main room, I folded my arms while surveying my brother.
"We still have company," I whispered. "And seriously? Solitaire? I have Civ IV on there."
"That game takes too much time," Austin said, his voice equally hushed. "I don't want to commit to something I might not be able to finish."
I sighed and shook my head. "I don't have long. Look can you just tell me why you're here and how the hell you found us so that Ryu doesn't end up locking you away?"
"Ryu?" Austin blinked.
I gave him my best, Come on, you know who I mean, look.
"Oh. Right." Austin shook his head. "Okay. Well, I'm here because you're my little sister and even though you think we no longer need a relationship, I get a say in that too."
Ouch. I shifted my gaze to my socked feet. I knew that ditching Austin was a shit thing to do, but I didn't want him caught up in something as dangerous as the Death Note. When Nox and I first met, the Shinigami gave several hints that if I were to tell anyone about the notebook, everyone who knew would be dead. I was terrified Austin might find out on accident and Nox wouldn't care. Not only would I be toast but so would my brother.
Of course, I couldn't exactly explain that to Austin. Especially not with said Shinigami hovering behind me.
"Family drama," he drawled.
I ignored Nox as I finally found the courage to meet my brother's eyes again. "I'm sorry. It was wrong; I know that now. I was going to come back as soon as this case was over, I swear. Being here, working with Ryu and the rest of the task force, it showed me that I shouldn't isolate myself like I had been. Dad's death just... hit me hard."
"Yeah, it hit me hard too," Austin murmured. "And the only piece of family I had left disappeared right after it happened."
"Shit, Austin, I have to go back out there in a second and if I'm not myself, they'll notice," I breathed. "Give me a break, man. All I can say right now is sorry. There's no excuse. I was wrong. But we don't have time to talk about that. How did you find us?"
"Contacts through work," Austin said, breaking our gaze. "They don't know about your detective pal or the Kira case being involved. They don't even know you're my sister. I told them you had valuable information I needed for my most recent job. I'm high up in the agency now; no one batted an eye, and no one will for at least two months. Anyway, I gave someone your photo, they eventually matched it with that Nina Forner ID of yours with the airlines."
"Knew I should have deleted those off their database," I grumbled to myself.
"They then used the same photo and followed that fake ID to the hotel you were staying at," Austin went on as if I hadn't said anything. "Noticed a pattern of you swapping hotels every three days, but you had just checked into this one when I got all the intel. I dropped everything and flew over."
"For someone who's worse at hacking and computers than I am, you know your stuff," I admitted.
"You're not that much better than me," Austin argued.
I waved him off. "Yeah sure. Anyway, you do realize that Ryu is going to demand your agency's name and info?"
"I told you that they have no clue he's here or that this has anything to do with the Kira case," Austin insisted.
"He won't care," I said. "He'll need their info so that he can ensure we aren't going to be compromised in any way. And I'll probably have to switch IDs." I sighed and headed for the bathroom. "Our guest is staying longer than I thought. You're going to be stuck in here a little while. If you're hungry there's some Pocky and KitKats in the drawer."
Austin opened the drawer at that. He pulled out a piece of wrapped candy. "Sake flavor?" he asked, perking a brow at me.
"It's good, okay?" I hissed the words through my teeth. "I'm taking a shower." I shot a small glare toward Nox as my brother turned away, warning the Shinigami to stay out here.
"I won't peep," Nox promised with an irritated wave of his hand. "Like you even need to tell me anymore."
I had to make the shower fast. Hopefully with the water running so long it just seemed like I took a longer one. Of course, I was sure L and the officers knew I was talking to Austin. It was Light I had to trick. Once I washed my hair and skin, I stepped out, rubbing a towel over my head. I used it to wipe a ribbon of clarity across the fogged mirror and stared at myself for a moment.
My skin was pallid—more than usual. I was starting to resemble L in that respect. Too much time inside working on the case. Of course, I worked plenty of other cases without leaving a building for days on end, but this was the longest lasting case I'd undergone. At least the circles beneath my eyes were barely noticeable. My blue hair was starting to fade a bit. I had already had to recolor and have it cut once while being over here. Looks like I was going to have to bed L to take me for one more appointment before we really dug into this next phase in our investigation.
Of course, Austin threw a wrench in nearly everything. I sighed and got dressed in some sweats and a tee shirt that was too big for me. It had a grumpy-looking fox on it with the text "Seriously, shut up" beneath it. I then took my iPod off speaker and placed my headphones back on, leaving the left ear open.
"Still advent on music, I see," Austin noted softly when I emerged from the bathroom.
"Keeps me sane." Not a lie.
"Listen, Ja... er, Nina. Before you go back out there, there's something you need to know," Austin insisted.
"Can't it wait?" I groaned.
"No, because I don't want to say this in front of your detective friend," Austin said. "You need to know now. When you asked me to find his real name, I didn't have to go to Wammy House to find it."
I perked a brow, suddenly intrigued. "What do you mean?"
"I already knew his name," Austin whispered, his eyes never leaving mine. "I learned it from you. You used to call some of your toys that when you first came to our home. You got pissed when you caught me listening. You said... you said you promised him you'd never tell anyone. And I had no clue who you were talking about until you called me that day."
The floor had taken my feet hostage as it began to sink. My legs were locked into place and there was an insistent thrum in my neck. My heart pound, pound, pounded through me, as if trying to tell me something. As if echoing Austin's words. Confirming their truth.
It made no sense, I had no memory of this. Not possibly knowing L before or playing with toys and calling them "L Lawliet." I didn't even have any memories of coming home from somewhere else with my parents. That was why it was so earth-shattering when I overheard them talking about how I was adopted. So then why was I so certain Austin was right? Why did my very soul seem to sing with clarity the moment he told me this?
Wammy House. A place that Austin heard our parents talking about when they first brought me home. Was he trying to jog my memory? Was... was Wammy House where I came from?
"I..." I shook my head and closed my eyes.
Damn it Austin, that was way too big of a bomb to drop on me now! Light was in the other room writing up a message to the Second Kira posing as the real Kira. I had to go out there and analyze what he wrote with a clear mind. I should be out there watching him write—never taking my eyes off him to search for any clues or hints as to if he was in fact our target. Now how in the hell was I going to do this?
Watari... when he first picked me up at my apartment... he'd seemed so surprised to see me. I thought he was just shocked I was a young woman at the time. But after spending so much time with the older man, feeling so genuinely comfortable around him... For Watari to seem so shocked, it had to be something big, not just that I was a female and below the age of thirty. Hell, L was my age...
"Christmas potato pudding..." I breathed.
Austin seemed slightly amused. "Still do that weird form of cursing, huh?"
"I can't talk about this now," I said, shaking my head. "We— you— I— fuck, just play solitaire until we're done and if you don't beat my high score I'll be disappointed in you."
Austin saluted me and I slipped out of the room, heart still causing a firestorm in my chest.
"I seriously need to stop thinking that this can't get more interesting," Nox said as he stalked after me, snickering. "On and on it goes, a train with no breaks or destination."
Well, at least a train had rails. Right now I was fairly certain my life didn't.
IMPORTANT NOTICE (A/N):::
Hey guys, I hope you liked the chapter! I just wanted to pop in to thank you guys for the overwhelming support with this story. I'm so glad that so many people can connect with Jack and approve with how I keep L in character. This story means a lot to me—like you wouldn't believe.
However, I do have to drop a slightly unpleasant announcement: there won't be another update for this story until around mid December. There are several reasons behind this, so let me go through them with you.
1: I've reached how much I've had written out already and now officially need to write fresh chapters, which will make updating a bit more time consuming.
2: It's National Writing Month! (NanoWriMo). Basically, the challenge is to write out 50,000 words in the month, and this year I'm prioritizing my original works, specifically hardcore editing my second book. Due to a tragic file corruption I had a while back, I had to make the PDF version of the book back into a Word document and that TOTALLY screwed the formatting. So, since I was giving the first two books a major makeover, I figured I might as well retype out the sucker while editing. The second book is roughly over 130,000 words, and I'm at about 55,000 right now. The good news is, once this is done, I am never looking back at the first two books again and I can focus on getting the third book of the series out.
3: I am making a trip to another state between November 30 and December 5. My grandfather has Alzheimer's, and I am determined to go see him before... well, before he forgets who I am. It's pretty rough, especially since I just lost my grandmother to Parkinson's. So I ask that you guys give me a little leeway on that—I'm not certain how that trip will go or what my mental state will be when I get back.
All right, so those are all the main reasons, but I want to assure you guys, this story isn't going anywhere. Compared to some of my other fics, a month and a half hiatus is actually not that bad at all, to be fair, haha.
Again, thanks loads for the support. Jack adores it too. I'm actually planning on using her character in a future original piece (though she might get a gender bend and be a male for that particular story). Hope you all had a hoppin' Halloween and have a great November! See you guys in December!
—Red