Your UVERworld ring tone pierced through your sleep. Grumpily, you stretched your arm over to pick up your mobile (or cell? I can't remember what Americans call it…). Hai?" you asked, your voice still hoarse from misuse.
"We require your services, Ahiru," came a gruff voice on the other end of the line.
You sat bolt upright in your bed, pushing the cover to the floor. "How did you get this number?" you asked, suspiciously.
"We have our contacts," he said, guarded.
"We? Who exactly is requiring my services?"
"I am not at liberty to say at this present moment. If we could steal just 10 minutes of your time, we will make you an offer you can't refuse."
'Ha! An offer I can't refuse, eh?' you thought, sitting with your head resting on your hands.
You had crept out of L's hotel and were waiting in the darkest corner of a coffee shop, wearing a black jacket with a high collar, a wide brimmed black hat and large dark sunglasses, which successfully concealed your face. Two men in suits entered the shop, saw you and warily walked over. The man on the left was tall and confident in the way he walked, you automatically pinned him as the leader of the two. The other man was fidgety and slouched as he walked, he seemed submissive to the other man. You wondered as to the relationship between the two. They sat opposite you and the taller man slid a file over to you. Cautiously, you flipped open the manila cover and perused the information. "A kidnapping," you said, your voice concealed by the voice morph installed in the high collar of your jacket.
Your gloved hand picked up a photo of the abducted person. "A student?" you asked, your surprise expertly masked by the morph.
The leader nodded grimly. "He was kidnapped for a ransom from his parents, our employers. They sent us a video with the message that we were to put 100 million in the account written on the file by midnight tonight. In return, Kisho would be released in a random location in the city. They also said that if we tried to contact the police, then he would start losing his fingers."
The leader stopped, stared down at his hands before looking up and continuing the story. You sat in silence, digesting the information as you waited for him to conclude. "Since we were the ones who were guarding him at the time that he was kidnapped, it falls to us to seek out the best to bring him safely back home. However, his parents have said that they will pay up to 50 million for the help of one of the greatest detectives in the world," the leader said and sat back, waiting for your reply.
Your eyes widened at the amount offered, and your mouth gaped as you tried to register how many zeros went into that number. You picked up the photo again and ingrained his appearance into your mind. Glancing at his file, you saw his name and age. 'Kisho Yamamoto aged 15 years.' He had short brown hair, looked of a light build and his light gray eyes radiated with kindness. You immediately felt sympathetic for him and his unfortunate predicament. You sighed inwardly; knowing that there was no way that you would turn them down now. "There's a small matter of the money…" you started.
"It's not enough?" the fidgety man said, it was the first time you had heard him speak.
You shook your head slowly, amused. "Well, maybe we could increase it-" started the leader, frowning some paper in his hands.
"No," you said, cutting him off, "1 million will be sufficient."
"One?" the leader said, disbelief written all over his expression.
"Yes, no more is needed."
The leader quickly regained his composure and stood up to shake your hand. "Please return him to us safely, Ahiru."
You nodded in acknowledgement, and the leader strode out of the shop, with the fidget in tow. You quickly gathered the folder together, and exited the coffee store, heading back to L's hotel. Like a wraith, you slipped in through the entrance and up to your room. Efficiently, connected the surveillance cameras to your laptop and ended the loop you had programmed over L's brilliant firewalls. You chuckled to yourself, making sure that nothing had seemed out of place, and quietly made your way to the main headquarters. You opened the door and were greeted by Matsuda, Mochi and Aizawa. Yagami Sochirou merely nodded to you, as did his son, Light. You looked over to L to realise that he hadn't even acknowledged your presence in the room. Walking over to your chair, you sat down and glared at the insomniac's back. As though sensing your look he turned and saw you. "Omaesan (hey)," he greeted, blankly.
You ignored him and started work on your private investigation, making sure that your screen was protected from both being seen by the police members and being hacked through L's computer. 'If I was receiving a ransom I wouldn't create only one account. I'd have one for the money to come into…and I'd have one to put the money in after I'd received it, and then hide all traces of the first account ever existing.' You easily hacked into Japanese Offshore, and searched for the details of anyone who had opened an account in the past few weeks. In the background you heard the discussions of the Kira investigators, however, you zoned them out as you searched the banks records, sucking on one of the lollipops you stole from L. A name caught your eye and you clicked on the record. As you read, everything fell into place. 'Gotcha!' you thought, grinning.
Your preparations complete, you hid in the women's bathroom and quickly made some phone calls. "Yes?" the tall man from the morning answered.
"It's Ahiru. Tell Mr. and Mrs. Yamamoto to put the money in the account specified."
There was a gasp on the end of the line and a quickly stammered, "But we hired you to stop that!"
"Trust me. Tell them that they will get their money back, but to secure the life of their son…they need to deposit the money," you said.
There was the sound of raised voices in the background, then an unfamiliar voice talked. "Ahiru…we trust your judgement. Just get him back to us. We'll deposit the money," said the male voice, you made an assumption that it was the abducted boy's father.
"Arigatou," you said, and ended the call.
You crept back into police headquarters to see them all standing around a laptop with the words 'Kira' written across it. A distorted voice was playing across the speakers, and curious about it, you listened. "Once we meet, we can confirm our identities by showing each other our Death Gods," the voice said.
You gasped, the name striking a chord within you. You looked around to see that everyone had puzzled looks on their faces; however, you noted that Light's expression was more of shock. You mouth hardened as your suspicion of him once again increased. Suddenly, L cried out and threw his arms up in the air. He overbalanced on the chair and it toppled over, crashing to the floor. The police rushed to his side, calling his name. You were surprised, but remained behind the group to gauge their reactions. The look on L's face haunted you, the fear in his eyes burning into your memory. "Shinigami…" he said, staring at the screen, "Are you trying to tell me…that such things exist?!" Theories burst out around you, but you continued to watch L as he rubbed the bridge of his nose and pushed the chair back into its original position. He glanced at you quickly, as though wondering why you hadn't contributed. You sent him a silent message with your eyes before turning away and hopping back onto your chair, cross-legged, to continue work on your computer. 'She knows something…when everyone has left, we'll talk,' L thought, glancing at your back before turning to the police and telling them his own theories.
The hands of the clock said exactly 8 o'clock. 'Excellent, everything is going to-"
Your thoughts were cut off by a soft voice behind you. "What information have you deduced from the occurrences of today?" L asked.
You jumped like a guilty child with their hand in the cookie jar. "I-uh…nothing much. Why?" you lied, stammering.
You turned around and saw his shoulders slump. "Oh…I just thought that you had thought of something important," he said.
'Why is she lying to me? She could be working in league for Kira? No…it's more likely that she doesn't want to tell me until her theories are proved beyond reasonable doubt. She looks distracted, as though she's waiting for something. The look on her face certainly made it apparent that she doesn't want to talk…' L reasoned, staring at your face in an attempt to read your emotions.
"Sou nee (well), gomen Ryu-kun. I'll let you know as soon as I've figured it out. I'm going out for a walk now so…I'll be in sometime later," you said, averting your eyes.
'She's not going for a walk, her non-verbal signals are telling me that so loudly she might as well have said it herself…well then where is she going?' L thought, puzzled by your antics.
You grew uncomfortable under L's stare. "I'll see you later then!" you shouted out, and practically sprinted down the corridor to the lift.
"Sou dana (well) I guess it's none of my business what she does…completely dressed in black, a black ski mask in her hand and a gun hidden in her vest…" L thought, sweatdropping before reaching into his pocket for his cell phone.
"Watari? Would you ready the private limo? I think I will be needing it."
You were lurking in the bushes around one of the many warehouses in Tokyo. You glanced down at your wristband computer and frowned. 'This must be the place…I can't have made a mistake. This is definitely the address that I found after hacking into the file…wait! What's that sound?'
The steel door of the warehouse began to open and a black van rolled out, its headlights dim. You grinned to yourself as you aimed and threw an object at the back of the van. It hit and attached to itself, making a small blip on your computer. 'Well that was easy enough. Now I just have to go and pick him up once I've finished here…' you thought.
As the door rumbled closed, you rolled into the warehouse and crawled behind one of the many trucks that were parked in this massive steel room. Hearing voices, you moved soundlessly over to a good vantage point. You saw that in total, there were five men scattered around the warehouse. Two were wandering around the trucks, obviously sentries, two were smoking and gambling over in the right-hand corner and the last was seated in front of some monitors in a side room. Marking their positions, both in your mind and on your computer map, you crawled on your stomach under a truck to take care of the first kidnapper. He turned away from you and you leapt up, cloth in your hand. You wrapped your legs around the large man and forcefully held the cloth against his nose and mouth. After a small struggle he fell to the ground, unconscious. With much difficulty, you dragged the body into a truck and bolted the doors behind you. You searched on your computer for your next target, and began to move over to his estimated position. You crawled under another truck and were about to stand up when you heard a clicking sound and felt something cold pressed against your skull. 'I sure wish it was L with his fork…'
"What do you think you're doing?" he said gruffly, pulling a transmitter from his pocket.
He looked away for a second to press a button, and you leapt. You wrenched a coil of thick wire out of your vest pocket and drew it around his neck, choking him until he passed out from asphyxia. You dragged the body to the same truck as before and breathed a sigh of relief as you closed the door. "Taji? Taji! Do you copy? We heard a noise over your way, Hoshi is coming to check it out," came a voice over the transmitter still in the unconscious man's hands.
'Kuso!' you thought, panicking.
You quickly bolted the door closed and ran and slid to hide under the truck opposite. You watched as feet passed, before rolling out and creeping up behind him. "Freeze," you said, your voice dripping with menace.
You saw his muscles suddenly tense, and he had the gun halfway up when you raised your heavy metal gun and hit him on the back of the head. He crumpled to the ground with a loud thud, the gun in his hand spinning across the coarse floor. You quickly stored him with the others and stealthily scouted out the next kidnapper. He was sitting at a low wooden table, cigar in mouth as he waited for his gambling companion to return. "What's taking Hoshi so long?" you heard him mumble.
Realising that he would soon become suspicious, you slowly drew the knife hidden in your boot. The metal made a slight sound as it left the holder and the man's head swiveled in your direction. In your haste, your aim was off and instead of hitting the man in the temple where you had intended; the hilt of the knife hit the man in his groin. He went down, gasping. You stood there in shock, if it wasn't such an intense situation, you might have laughed. The brute of a man looked up, saw you and literally snarled. You saw his lip curl and still holding himself, the man lunged at you. In desperation, you drew the knife hidden in the secret holster in your cleavage. As the man got closer, you threw the dagger, and this time your aim rang true. The hilt of the knife connected with the man's temple, and he went down again, however, this time, he had passed out. You exhaled heavily, panting after your ordeal. Feeling sufficiently recovered, you struggled to put his body with the others before going after the last kidnapper. He was sitting in a high-backed leather chair, absorbed in the content of the monitor in front of him. You slowly approached him, gun raised at the dead center of the chair. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. I see we've got you surrounded," came a low voice from the chair you were approaching.
The chair swiveled around to reveal a silver-haired man in a white suit. He was sitting cross-legged, a sparkle of amusement apparent in his eyes. Your peripheral vision told you that approximately 10 men had crept into the room behind you. Thinking on your feet, you aimed your gun at the large window and shot, shattering the glass into tiny fragments. Curling your arms around your head for protection, you leapt out of the window, down a two-storey drop. You landed awkwardly on your left leg; however, you were otherwise unharmed and pulled yourself to your feet and sprinted towards the end of the alley. You heard shouting from inside the building, and you realised that you would come to the entrance of the warehouse at the same time as the kidnappers. You hesitated, wondering how to escape the situation. Suddenly, hands grasped your shoulders and pulled you further into the darkness. Thinking that you had been caught, you pivoted around, ready to punch the offender in the face. "Just play along," came a familiar voice.
'Ryu-kun?' you thought, before blushing as he pulled you closer to him.
He quickly pulled off your ski mask, allowing your long blonde hair to spill over your shoulders. "They're looking for a singular person, wearing a ski mask," he said, pushing you over to the wall of the alley.
He pressed you against the smooth steel and put a hand either side of your head. His face was only inches from yours, which involuntarily caused you to blush. The suited men ran past you, completely ignoring your presence. One of the men sneered as he went past, "Get a room, will ya!"
After they had all passed, L stepped back and resumed his usual slouching position. For no reason you could decipher, tears suddenly stung your eyes. You brought a hand up to your face and wiped away the wetness. 'Why am I upset? Is it because…he's so…indifferent to me?' you puzzled, glancing at L.
Not giving yourself time to think, you strode out into the street, illuminated by the streetlight. "Well? Where's your limo?" you asked, boldly.
"Why do you assume that I have a limo?" he asked, pressing a button on his cell.
"You always have a limo…" you said, and sure enough headlights came around the corner of the street.
You looked back at him and poked your tongue out.
Leaning back into the comfy seating of the limo, you examined your arms for cuts from the shattered glass. You flinched as you came across a piece of glass embedded in your forearm. "What was the purpose of this exercise? They will escape and continue to commit crimes," L said, sitting opposite you in his regular seating position.
A series of police sirens wailed past the limo in the direction of the warehouse. You grinned in triumph. "Not anymore," you said, before pulling the glass from your arm and applying pressure through a bandage from your vest, "I gave the police a tip off about the location of the Tokyo kidnappers headquarters, as well as informing them as to where the kidnapped boy was left."
You beamed down at your computer, the screen showing the exact place where the van had stopped. "Well, I guess that's a job well done," you murmured, feeling drowsy.
All of a sudden, something occurred to you. "Ryu-kun! What are you doing here?"
"I tailed you," he said, glancing at you before resuming staring out of the window.
"What!?Why?" you burst, enraged.
"You were acting suspicious. I thought that you might have been in danger," he said, defensively.
You deflated, unhappy with his excuse, and then you began to grin slyly. "You were worried about me, weren't you Ryu-kun?" you said, sliding over to sit next to him.
You saw a faint pink cover his cheeks and satisfied with yourself, you leant your head on his shoulder. "Uh…Ahiru-chan?" he asked, somewhat hesitantly.
You didn't answer and he looked down to see that you were fast asleep, your mouth partially agape. The corner of his mouth jerked up and tentatively, he moved his arm and put it around your shoulders as you slept, completely oblivious.