I Have the Right to Destroy
Chapter 7: Lost
Please… please, just kill me now! I can't take it anymore… I would rather die than go through this torture…
Ryuzaki stared intently at the screen. Misa-Misa had been there for four days already. She barely ate and drank anything. She looked so pitiful that Wedy found it harder and harder to use mild torture in order to get her to confess.
Kill me now! You can do it, can't you? I will be happy if you just killed me right now…
"You would be happy…? Who exactly are you talking to, Amane?" said Ryuzaki into the microphone.
Misa did not answer. Her whole body slumped over and only remained standing because of the bondage. Her face was covered by her hair. She was uncharacteristically quiet for a very long time…
A lock of her hair swung upwards and fell down on her face.
Ryuzaki's eyes widened at this.
And then, as if waking up from a terrible nightmare, Misa's head raised. Oh my god… she said. Blindfolded, she looked upwards and said, Stalker-san? Please, please, please let me go… I don't know why you're saying I'm second Kira, but believe me, I'm not! Please? I'll give you a kiss if you let me go… That's what you want, isn't it?
Ryuzaki suddenly found himself without a Kira.
Ryuk watched as Kira wiped off cold cream from his face. Instantly, the fake pimples, blotchy skin, and make-up that polluted his face disappeared. All that was left was the unnatural shine, whiteness, and smoothness of Kira's baby face. "That's a lot of trouble to disguise yourself, kid. But I kind of like it better when you have those pimples on your face. You look more normal."
Kira took off his eyeglasses and black wig. He marveled at his original face. No-one will ever know… "Really? The purpose of this make-up is to look more average, more of a loser so that I wouldn't be found by L's lackeys. But if you think I look better with those pimples… I suppose death gods have a different set of standards for beauty."
"Yep. In the death gods' realm, the fatties are the popular ones. But I don't like them, either," said Ryuk. "Come to think of it… I think I'm the most good-looking death god among them… I mean, didn't you say I looked like Sid Vicious or something? Ku ku ku…"
"You are a strange one, Mr. Ryuk," said Kira, slightly amused.
"Yeah, even the other death gods think so. Hey, kid, let's float by Akihabara again tomorrow. Buy me a DS, please!"
Kira frowned. "I doubt that we'll still have time to walk to Akihabara again, Mr. Ryuk. You know that we're fighting L."
"Eeeh… I wanted us to have our own DS's, too, so we could fight in Jump Ultimate," Ryuk whined. The death god flipped over and stood on his head. Kira rolled his eyes at this tantrum. Really, this guy… reading Jump and playing videogames while I'm changing the world…
Suddenly, Rem went through the wall of the room where Kira resided. Without fuss, she announced, "Misa has forgotten everything."
"She gave up ownership, you mean," Kira replied.
"Yes," replied the death god. "She'll still remember you, though. She still loves you. If you don't rescue her, I'll kill you," she threatened.
He narrowed his eyes at Rem. He didn't particularly like how the death god threatened him, but he knew that he couldn't complain. Kira'd be no good if he's dead, right? Finally, he said, "I know. That's why I told you to make her give up ownership of the note. We'll find a way to rescue her, don't worry."
Ryuk, already done with his tantrum, munched on an apple and asked, "What are you going to do now? Are you going to give up ownership of the note, too? Just say the word, kid."
Still in the hideous bondage gear, Misa was asked by Ryuzaki, did you forget about being second Kira?
"No! How could I forget something I never knew in the first place?! I told you, I'm not Second Kira! Please… I'll do anything if you set me free…"
Then admit to your crimes, Amane. Tell us how you did it.
"I can't! Weren't you listening? I'm not second Kira! Please, stalker-san, I'll even try to pee for you… That's what you want, isn't it? You just want to watch me do things that will turn you on!"
You're lying, aren't you, Amane?
"No…" Misa groaned. "You're doing this… this illegal thing! Do you think it's kinky? Do you think Misa likes sadists?! Misa doesn't like it, not one bit! They should send you to jail, stalker-san! I hope they give you the death penalty!"
Death penalty… huh?
For some reason, after that, Ryuzaki stopped questioning Misa for the day. She imagined the bastard consulting with the police and asking them, do the Japanese sentence stalkers to the gas chamber?
When Matt woke up, a bad taste was in his mouth.
"I thought I was at the forest by a river…" he muttered to himself. "I guess I was just dreaming."
He looked around and assessed his surroundings. He rubbed the space at the back of his head and marveled at how empty-headed he felt. His goggles felt foreign and heavy on his face. He took them off.
The watch told him that it was 6 in the morning. "Just in time for breakfast," he said before fumbling under his bed for some food to eat.
What he felt instead was something leathery. With two fingers, he pulled it out whatever it was and dropped it on himself.
"… notebook… damn it, do I still have anything for breakfast?" he grumbled to himself vaguely. A bar of light from the windows fell on his brown eyes and made them seem redder than usual.
"Ow ow ow. Light," he grumbled. He pulled down the goggles over his eyes. "I guess I shouldn't take that off while I'm hiding out here." More grunts and grumbles for Matt, until he finally fell over the side of his bed and landed on the floor.
There was the stash of chocolate bars he was looking for: Hi-Milk bars by Meiji. He'd hoarded them like crazy the day before in a convenience store. He took one bar, peeled off the wrapper, and stuffed the chocolate in his mouth.
As he munched on his breakfast, he looked around his room and pondered about the emptiness that lingered in his mind. Was it the product of that funky dream he had? Wait, what was that dream again?
The dream, the dream! Ah, there it was. There was fire and water and a long string of words. Floating apples. A genie. Himura Kenshin playing his katana with the Mongolian Chop Squad. Ten cats.
"Matt, you are the angel of death today! You know, kind of like Morty from Click," the great big black cat told him. Except that the cat looked a lot like Neil Gaiman. Except that Neil Gaiman had eyes like an owl and he was eating a bushel of oranges.
"I am? That's amusing," Matt had told the Neil Gaiman animagus. After that, though, he just kind of stared at the big cat. There was something very wrong with the cat, and even in the dream, it didn't seem natural.
Before he could ask the cat whether he had nine lives or not, out of the bushes, a cherry blossom—"sakura no hana wa itsu kuchiru? Shinda nana no ko noboru koro…"—started blooming. At the centre of the explosion of petals were the eerie floating heads of Mello and Near.
Except that Mello wasn't quite mellow nor was he yellow, and Near was never queer, just a little bit… clear? Hmm.
"Hi there, Mile," said Mello. "Hey, can I come over and kill you tomorrow?"
"Ah, Mimochka!" For some reason, Matt (wait, why was he Mile today?) started talking to him in fluent Russian. "If you kill me, I wouldn't particularly like it. You have got to give me back my DS juice! Ah, look, the walk-throughs are all over the place," he added, gesturing at the cherry blossom petals.
Mello shrugged. "Okay. You'll die once she gets back." And then Mello's head popped like a balloon. Or he burst like a bubble, more like…
She… she? Was he talking about Linda? Or Death? Matt looked around for traces of Chrissie Hynde, but no cigar.
Near was a bubble-head as well. "Hey, Kurt Cobain," he called. A hand formed from the thin air. The pinky, ring finger, and middle finger all curled towards the palm, the index finger extended, and the thumb pointed upwards to form a sideways L. "Bang!"
Matt's head exploded.
His ear fell next to Near. The last thing he heard was Near's mocking voice, singing what else could I write? I don't have the right. What else should I be? All apologies.
Ah, that was pretty ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was the fact that he remembered these things. Maybe he was just dog tired from all the action from this whole Kira case.
Speaking of which, if Kira were a videogame, and you can pick between Near, Matt, Mello, and L, who would he pick? L would probably have the most abilities, but he would be hard to use because if Kira found him, then all his HP would be drained by just one blow! Near would have the lowest agility points. Mello would be the easiest character to use because his attacks are strong and he's pretty agile!
Matt would probably have the lowest stats—higher agility than Near, maybe higher defence against Kira than L. (Because Kira would want to kill L first before anybody else.) But Matt would have the weakest attacks, wouldn't he? Then it would be hard to beat Kira…
Hm… maybe I could make that up with extra equips. Equip goggles, plus 1 dexterity.
He shrugged to no-one in particular and stood up. He flipped through the notebook, tapped on a specific page, and said to himself, "Ah, now I remember what I was going to do today…"
"Ryuzaki… I hate to bother you with this again, but I don't think Amane Misa is the one you're looking for," said Light. "I mean, sure the killings stopped yesterday for some reason. But that may be Kira's voluntary action and not necessarily because Misa's confined…"
Ryuzaki tore open a box of Hello Panda as he answered, "When we captured Amane Misa, she was second Kira. I'm sure of it. The evidence says so."
Light looked at him, and then turned to the TV screens. Misa looked awful. She grew thinner, and her face started showing signs of emaciation and severe dehydration. Her frizzy, oily hair grew a bit longer after two weeks of confinement. Light could see the difference between her black roots and her bleached-blonde hair. If her head didn't bob every now and then from dizziness, Light worried that she was already dead.
"Ryuzaki… no matter how I look at it, we can't prove that she's second Kira today," Light said.
"That may be true, Light-kun. But she hasn't proven thus far that she isn't second Kira. The investigation must continue."
"Investigation?! More like torture!" said Light in annoyance. "Look, Ryuzaki, I know the evidence against Misa seemed damning before, but what do the evidence in her room and on the tapes tell us? I mean those pollen seeds from Nagano, those fingerprints on the envelopes… It just means that she mailed second Kira's videotapes. For all we know, she was only being controlled by second Kira!"
"Controlled by second Kira…" Ryuzaki bit on his finger in thought. "If she is being controlled, then it must mean that she should die any second now."
"A… any second now?" said Light nervously. "Why would she die any second now?"
"Light-kun, let's give her five seconds. 5… 4… 3…"
"Wh… what are you saying, Ryuzaki?! Stop it!" screeched Light. Despite himself, he looked up at the screen and expected Misa to fall over and die.
"2… 1…"
Nothing. She was still breathing. Light breathed a sigh of relief.
"Light-kun, you're much too gullible. Please try to take the case more seriously," said Ryuzaki before turning to the screen again.
"… you're the one who needs to take it more seriously…" grumbled Light. He crossed his arms over his chest and decided not to talk to Ryuzaki anymore. That bastard.
Moments later, the door flew open with a BANG! Light and Ryuzaki turned and saw a rather frantic looking Matsuda, panting and puffing like he ran the length of the English Channel. "R… Ryuzaki! NHN! NHN!"
Swiftly and gracefully, Ryuzaki twirled a universal remote control like a revolver and turned one of the TVs on. Conveniently, it was already on NHN.
Light had to say, "No way…" upon seeing the title of the news report: Kira suspect found dead in Tokyo Bay
A stern-looking news field reporter, microphone shaking slightly in her hands, was saying, "Following the call of a concerned local fisherman, the police recovered the body of an adult Japanese male. Upon inspecting the items on the person's body, the police discovered that the person was most likely involved in the death and beheading of the unknown Caucasian boy from Chiba, which happened around a month ago."
Ryuzaki frowned as a police officer said in the interview: "The body was wearing a back-pack, and inside it was the head of a young boy. Our forensics lab has yet to process this, but judging by the appearance of the boy's face, he seems to match the body we found in Chiba a month ago.
"The person also had with him a notepad and a pen sealed in a Ziploc bag. There were markings on the front page of the notepad, and we concluded that the note found on the other victim's body was written on top of it.
"We have confirmed that the person drowned to death. We theorize that he drowned in an attempt to flee after the incident in Chiba."
The reporter then said, "The police are now working hard to identify the identity of the drowning victim. Based on the descriptions of the Japanese Police, the man is around seventeen or eighteen years of age, medium height and build. He has a tattoo of Katakana characters on his belly which reads shi-shi-o-su. When his body was found, he was wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt with The Pretenders printed on it, and a black leather jacket. If you know this man, please contact the Japanese Police immediately through these numbers…"
The guy's face was shown on screen, and at the bottom were various telephone numbers for civilians to call.
"Could he be Kira? It may seem absurd to think that this man found at the bottom of Tokyo Bay is responsible for the deaths of many criminals worldwide. However, it may be important to consider that the criminal deaths by heart attacks, in many countries, stopped yesterday. We cannot conclude anything so far, but the role of Kira in these bizarre events is undeniable…"
"Tsk," said Ryuzaki before pressing the mute button. "That's not Kira, I can tell you that much."
Matsuda's jaw dropped in amazement. "Ryuzaki? Why are you so sure about that? I mean, is this your first time watching this report? The killings stopped because Kira died!"
Even Light shook his head. "Unless the time is significant, it's most likely fake."
Ryuzaki and a flustered Matsuda looked at him. "Really, Light-kun? Are you sure you're not just mimicking me? Please explain in ten words or less," said the detective.
Light whined and decided not to follow Ryuzaki's demands. "Matsuda-san, if you look at the body they showed in the report, you would notice that it already showed signs of decay, which can mean that the guy probably drowned days or even weeks ago. It's possible that it's Kira, but only if Kira can determine the times of death before hand. Even then, I don't think this is the guy. I don't think that the pause in killing and this guy's death are related… although, there's an undeniable link to Kira here."
"And what link is that, Light-kun?" asked Ryuzaki.
Light put a thumb to his chin in thought "Don't you think that the notepad they found in the guy's backpack is strange? I mean, who puts a pen and a notepad inside a Ziploc bag? But it's because of that that the paper didn't degrade, and it made the job of figuring out the note's origin for the police much easier. That, plus the kid's head… It seemed as if this guy made sure that he was implicated and blamed for the beheading incident in Chiba."
"B-but doesn't that mean that the guy was probably guilty about what he did? Maybe he was sorry for breaking the law, but he didn't want to go to jail, so he killed himself instead?" stuttered Matsuda.
"We don't know yet if the guy really killed himself, Matsuda. For all we know, somebody else put those items in his bag before he was killed," said Light.
"Aw." Matsuda sniffed in embarrassment. "But in any case… it would look like the guy was just a victim of something else, not Kira… so why would you say that there's an undeniable link to Kira?"
"I think that it's another message from Kira or Second Kira," said Light.
"What message would that be, Light-kun? There were no explicit written messages with the victim. And the fact that you're mentioning Second Kira troubles me…" said Ryuzaki.
"Ryuzaki. You did say that there's a possibility that Kira had the ability to manipulate events before the death like Second Kira. If he does, then this is his way of saying it. I can manipulate events before the death like Second Kira. Furthermore, I can kill people by other means than a heart attack," said Light. He then sighed, shook his head and said, "Of course, that's assuming that Amane Misa is second Kira. But at this point, I think it's really unlikely. This kind of method fits in more with second Kira's personality than Kira's. I think that the guy responsible for this is the true second Kira. And this may be his message for Kira or for L…"
"There's something wrong with your theory, Light-kun," said Ryuzaki. "Why would second Kira send another message to Kira, or to L, in that manner? Second Kira already admitted to Japan that she has found Kira. And if she wanted to send a message to L, it would be much simpler to use Sakura TV again."
Light frowned. "Maybe it's because you captured his messenger-girl!"
Ryuzaki tilted his head. "If that's true, then second Kira should have just used another person to mail her messages for L."
Matsuda looked from one investigator or another and took note of the annoyed facial expression on Light's face, and then the dead fish look on Ryuzaki's. "Uh… guys, don't fight… Light-kun, please put your fist down…"
Light sighed. "Look, Ryuzaki. I can punch you right now, but that wouldn't help. Neither one of us can prove who did this…"
Ryuzaki blinked. "I understand, Light-kun. Perhaps all we need is time to process this development by ourselves. Matsuda, please obtain copies of the report of this incident and send them to us immediately. You are both dismissed," he said.
Light agreed and left the room. Matsuda poured a cup of coffee for Ryuzaki before he left the odd detective all by himself.
Now all alone, Ryuzaki dropped sugar cubes one by one in his coffee.
This girl was definitely second Kira. He stared at Amane Misa on one of the screens. She was very much alive, but she was sleeping.
Today, a man related to second Kira's first message was found dead. Death was not due to a heart attack. This could be an accident, or an orchestrated murder by Kira or Second Kira…
Could it be possible that Amane killed this guy during confinement? If she were second Kira, she should have also seen his face… We can't conclude anything yet without the guy's autopsy report. Maybe he died way before Amane Misa was confined… She would still remain a suspect, if that were the case…
Ryuzaki slurped on his tea. He savoured the sugar granules on his tongue—one by one, they melted into smooth liquid that flowed like a river down his throat. He felt a light bulb floating amicably on his head.
The key is Shishiosu…
The feeling of loss gone from his mind, Ryuzaki bit his thumb happily.
Minotaur… is it?
The meeting place was next to Tama River. It was a quiet afternoon in Tokyo.
"Well, I never thought I'd see the day, Near."
Near paused from playing with his Gundam action figures and smiled slyly. He didn't turn to see who was there. He didn't need to look at him to figure out who he was. That's a voice he'll never forget, no matter how much it matures.
"Mello. You don't need that gun. I have nothing with me that can kill you. Please keep it to yourself. You don't want Giovanni to shoot, do you?"
Tension in the air. "Tch." Mello's annoyed grunt. The sound of two guns being put down kept was heard.
"You must be surprised, ne, Mello?" he turned around and looked at him. He's not wearing a disguise today, Near mused. "I wonder if you truly believed that I was dead."
"That body in Chiba, you mean," said Mello. He shrugged. "Never bought it. I don't think Second Kira will ever be able to kill you. You're too shy, too weak. You don't show your face too often. That's a nice tactic for survival, but you're not gonna solve the mystery that way."
"Interesting that you think so, Mello. Does that mean you know in your heart who Kira and Second Kira are?"
Near stared at Mello.
Instead of answering the question, Mello smirked. "Japan must have softened you, Near. You're using the word heart so freely now. But you're the one who contacted me, so you'd better tell me what's so important that you had to call me out of my busy schedule."
Busy schedule my butt, thought Near. "Fair enough." Near put a hand in his jacket pocket. When his hand came out, a small card with writing on the white side was held between two fingers.
He tossed it to Mello, who caught it between two fingers, much like a shuriken.
It was a photograph of Mello's face. Dear Mello was written on the back.
"Where'd you find this?" asked Mello with some perplexity in his voice.
"You were careless, Mello, as was Matt. After you guys left Whammy's House, I rummaged through the rubble and found a photo album, relatively unharmed by the fire. All three of us had pictures there. Before I left, I destroyed everything with my face on it."
"I see."
"Don't worry. That was the only picture of you that was kept there," said Near.
Mello frowned at him and said, "You lied to me. You told me that you had nothing with you that can kill me."
Near smiled. "I didn't lie. Or do you think I can kill you with just your face?"
They fell silent.
After two minutes of staring at each other (with a tension so anxiety-provoking that the quiet observer Giovanni started to shake in his shoes), Mello asked, "Do you think I'm Kira?"
Near answered, "Even if I didn't return your photograph, you wouldn't have been killed by those who only needed a face to kill."
"So you do think I'm Kira."
The boy started twirling a lock of his hair. He looked very much like a sneaky girl (for a lack of a better term) when he did that. "If I die, then I am sure of it," said Near.
Mello laughed. "Don't be so sure about that. There are many other ways to kill you."
With that, Mello disappeared into the trees.
Near turned to Giovanni and asked him to help him with his disguise again.
- Chapter 07 end -
Notes: This was entitled 'Lost' because even I was getting lost in the plot. But not to worry, now everything is silently falling to place. :) I hope you've all found who you're looking for in this chapter!