I Have the Right to Destroy
Chapter 09: Chocolate
A sidewalk in Aoyama, 4:30 PM.
Mello rubbed the side of his hand against his sweaty brow. As drops of salty water slid on his face, he imagined that the world was melting. Summers in this country were truly warm and humid. Times like these, he missed the chill in England.
That day, he was a bit truer to himself than usual: he wore a slightly tight-fitting dark purple shirt, dark skinny jeans, black flip-flops, and wayfarers. No wig, just his hair up in a ponytail. He only wore make-up to cover up the huge burn mark on his face, but already he feared that the foundation was canyoning, or else was melting off of his face.
He quickly eyed the crowd floating aimlessly by. Yes, she was still there, one of L's spies. Misora—that was her name, wasn't it? That girl Amane Misa said that the name she used to introduce herself was an alias.
Just like 'Mello,' right? She added with a vague smile.
Mello turned around and headed off for a convenience store. Once in, he relished the air-conditioned coolness and the no-fuss white lights. A nothing and nowhere place to hang out.
He took a shopping basket and put in many boxes of Meiji chocolate bars. Black, Milk, Hi-Milk, he wanted them all. He also got a few boxes of Hello Panda, Pocky, Yan-Yan, Hershey Bars, and a random bag of potato chips whose brand name he didn't even check.
He went towards a wall made entirely out of refrigerators. He looked at himself on the glass doors' reflection.
Good. The make-up was still doing its job.
He noticed her again. It was hard distinguishing her from all the other Japanese women with long dark hair, small dark eyes, and normal height, but there she was. Her unremarkable appearance, her diligence, and her ability to fade in the background all made for a good spy…
Not good enough, unfortunately. Mello opened the refrigerator door, took a carton of chocolate milk, closed the door again, and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
I look rather devilish with a ponytail, he thought to himself.
He didn't have to worry about being followed today.
An unnamed tower in Tokyo, 4:00-6:00 PM.
L ate a slice of chocolate cake that Mogi made for him. It was moist, yes. Chilled in a refrigerator for at least forty-five minutes, yes. Three layers, lots of icing in the middle and around it, yes. Hibiscus-shaped flowers were drawn on the plate with chocolate syrup, yes.
But… it's not quite sweet enough, he thought to himself in slight disappointment. He didn't complain to Mogi anymore. He was a good enough sport for agreeing to bake things for L. Now the guy was arranging the case files of all the criminals who died within the past week. He shouldn't disturb him.
His focused his eyes on the numerous TV screens before him:
Screen 1: Amane Misa. She had just come home from work today, which was a photoshoot for Cosme, a Japanese cosmetics company that hired her to model for their newest lipstick. Currently, Amane was struggling out of her knee-high boots, which had more shoelaces than necessary (or humanly possible, L thought).
Screen 2: Yagami Light and Matsuda Tota. They were in a separate office from L. Light reviewed episodes of Kira's Kingdom on Sakura TV, while Matsuda was carelessly flipping through the channels of local TV, in hopes of finding something relevant to the case. L doubted that these two would find anything dramatic. Every now and then, the two of them took out their cell phones and answered calls and text messages. Nothing to worry about, though. No-one would be able to track down their exact locations in this building.
Screen 3: Wedy, one of L's trusted spies. She was at some place outdoors. Part of a leaf occupied a small corner of the camera's field of vision.
Screen 4: A blurry image of Matt, one of the Kira suspects. Wedy said that she'd worked hard to find out where in Tokyo he was currently staying. Simply put, it didn't look like a classy place at all. It may be the slightly cooler air outside the house, but Matt was sitting on the steps outside, smoking a cigarette and playing with his DS. He had on his goggles, too. He didn't look too comfortable, sitting outside… At around six o'clock in the evening, he went inside the house again.
Screen 5: Yagami Souichirou and Aizawa Shuichi. They were studying weeks-old tapes of the Kira suspects, back in England and a few from Japan—at least, the few moments where Wedy was sneaky enough to catch them on tape. L also doubted that the two officers would find anything new, as he had memorized every movement
Screen 6: A shaky image of Mello, walking along the business districts of Tokyo. It looked like he was in the middle of shopping. He nonchalantly carried with him three plastic bags of chocolate, chocolate milk, and a bag of potato chips, which he all bought from the convenience store. It was hard to get any more details because this was from a camera installed on a button on Misora's handbag.
L frowned. You two are being too obvious, aren't you? Either your teachers at Whammy's House taught you sloppily, or you are reacting to Amane's loss of memory…
A room in an unknown building in Tokyo, 5:47 PM.
Using stacks of empty boxes of Meiji milk chocolate, Near played with his robot figurines. Pew pew pew pew. The black robot gets the pink one, right in its power source. Lasers all around. Now the white robot sends them to their doom with a wild array of nondescript plastic missiles. Vroom… badaboom! Now empty robot carcasses floated randomly in space, never to be controlled by humans ever again…
Bip bip bip…
Near attached a device that would scramble his voice at the cell phone's bottom and flipped it open. "Oh, it's you. I didn't know you had it in you to call me like this," he said.
He listened to the voice for a long time and didn't say anything. After a long, silent processing of information, he nodded and said, "Thank you very much. You have been helpful. I understand how stressful it is. Please continue, even though people are watching you," and then hung up without another word.
He then turned on the television. It was time for the six o'clock news. How many people has Kira killed today, I wonder…
A room in a run-down building in Tokyo, 6:42 PM.
In Matt's adventures in the business districts today, he discovered something interesting: instant chocolate rice mix. The Filipinos called it champorado, apparently. Matt was usually conservative when it came to chocolate—that is, he would usually eat milk chocolate bars without nuts or nougat or peanut butter or anything weird in them.
But he was in a strange mood today, that he was. And cooking champorado seemed to fit that very mood.
The time on his phone was 18:42, which meant that the six o'clock news on NHN was already half-way through. It was time for the news anchor to announce Kira's Japanese casualties for the day.
"30 victims today, huh? All of them guys, too. Not bad, not bad. Could be better though," he muttered to himself. He laughed. A puff of smoke from his cigarette floated around his face.
Ah, sorry about that, L. The smoke must have made it difficult for your cameras to see my face for, like, two seconds there, he thought.
Yeah, it was pretty hard to see, but he knew that there was a chick somewhere, watching his every move. It's been getting harder and harder to avoid L's spies, but he knew there was nothing to worry about—at this time, at least. All he had to do was to act natural, maybe put on a disguise every now and then and dodge the cameras, and then they'll get sick of him.
He mindlessly stirred the chocolate rice porridge as he continued listening to the news report.
A booth in Blue Note Café, Aoyama, 8:20 PM.
Takada Kiyomi was exactly twenty minutes late for her date. She was probably being irrational when she worried that he'd be annoyed at her by this time, but she only wanted this date to be the first among many. He was a pretty interesting guy, after all. And the fact that he's a senior who's interested in a freshman like her was another nice thing to think about.
As expected, he was already there. He looked up when she arrived. He smiled at her and urged her to sit down.
Oh, good, he's still game, thought Kiyomi in relief. She sat across him. From her point of view, his glasses shone blue light and hid his eyes pretty well.
"You look good tonight, Takada-san. Nice touch with the Chocolate University shirt," he said.
"Thank you, Mikami-san," she said sheepishly and grinned at him. She was right to dress simply at the Blue Note. This was the type of café where people stood out more when they looked good in just a shirt and jeans. It wasn't the type of place where she imagined he'd want to hang out, but heck, he still looked good in a plain black shirt and blue jeans. Other guys would look like bouncers if they dressed like that, but he still managed to look dignified.
"Do you know any of the performers tonight?" asked Mikami. He flipped some of the black hair hanging over his face, which threatened to cover his eyes.
"No, I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with rock bands… I think I know Nightmare, though… I think they performed in campus that one time. How about you? Did you come here especially for one band?" she asked.
Mikami laughed and shook his head. "No, actually, I know nothing about rock."
Kiyomi tilted her head in curiosity. "Then… why did you pick this place?"
He shrugged in response. "I find the people who hang out here are rather interesting, Takada-san."
An unnamed tower in Tokyo, 9:00 PM.
Yagami Light pressed a button on the DVD player's remote, which stopped the Kira's Kingdom rerun from playing. As was warned to him beforehand, there was nothing to see in the episodes—it was worth as much as a noontime variety show, just less appealing because of all the senseless Kira worship. He made a list of suspicious-looking audience members, like professionals and university students who did not fit in with the rest of the fanatics. These he sent to L. After that, there was nothing to do…
Why Ryuzaki assigned him to such a dreary job, he had no idea. Perhaps it was a ruse for the other detectives working on the case as well? Yes, Ryuzaki hinted at that, didn't he? "I will make sure that you and the rest of the task force will see our victory." It would be extremely discomforting for his dad if Ryuzaki gave heavier and more dangerous assignments to Light, after all. Maybe that's why the guy found it necessary to relay information to him in other ways…
He stretched out his arms and stood up.
"Where are you going, Light-kun?" asked a rather bored Matsuda. He was assigned to watch news shows from Japan and all around the world. It seemed to be the same old thing: a list of Kira's victims would be shown, but apart from that, no news anchors dying or messages from Kira. The murderer didn't seem to deviate from his normal routine.
"The toilet. I've been holding it in for a while now," Light answered.
Matsuda had on his face an okay, too much information kind of facial expression. "Okay. Hey, would you like some hot chocolate when you get back? I'm going to make some for myself."
Hot chocolate? In the summer? I think he's been hanging around Ryuzaki too much, thought Light to himself. "No thank you, Matsuda-san. I'd appreciate iced coffee, though."
"Okay, if you say so," replied the detective. He stood up and started humming Nightmare's Alumina as he got a couple of coffee mugs from a cabinet in the corner of the room.
This guy is better at making coffee rather than doing detective work. Seems to enjoy it a lot more too, thought Light in semi-amazement before leaving for a much-deserved bathroom break.
The same unnamed tower in Tokyo, 9:16 PM.
Amane Misa was stretched out on her couch and was watching Animax. It was a bit early for bedtime, but she was already dressed in her sleeping gear: a tiny black nightshirt and long, striped socks. Hey, it's been a long day. The shoot lasted for 7 hours, and they told her and Mochi that they had to go back to the studio the next day.
She sighed and reached out for a plastic bag on the coffee table. It had around five bars of Meiji Black chocolate. Mochi had mistakenly bought her these instead of the Hi-Milk ones that she asked for, but she told him that it was okay. "Eighteen Magazine says that dark chocolate has less sugar and more phenylethylamines, so they're less fattening and they will make Misa-Misa happier!"
Of course, she didn't know what PEA's were, or whether Eighteen was just making it up or not. She'd have to research it on the internet later, she decided. Mochi was just glad that he didn't have to go to the convenience store again…
Ah, this is the life. Chobits and dark chocolate. Misa almost forgot that that creep Ryuzaki was probably watching her as she watched TV…
"I am looking for the person only for me…"
Misa wept as she listened to the soft voice of Chii floating over the strange, unknown story book. As she sobbed, she furiously bit into the chocolate bar. The PEAs didn't work as much as she had hoped.
Two days later. Outside Yellow Box Studio, Shinjuku. 4:35 PM.
Mogi Kanzo carried with him two shopping bags and a canvas bag filled with Misa-Misa's clothes, shoes, and make-up. Some of them were freebies from the Cosme people, while others were the things that Misa brought with her "in case they make me wear icky clothes again."
Amane Misa had just posed for the last few photos that Cosme needed for their print ads. She took off her platform step-ins and changed into flip-flops. "Mochi, I'm really tired. Are you driving me home, or are we waiting for Matsu to get here? What did Ryuu-chan tell you?"
"Misa-Misa, I'm sorry. He told us to take a cab and meet with Matsui somewhere else," answered Mogi in a low voice.
"Mou… how annoying," grumbled Misa. "I better get a raise…"
You don't get paid. In fact, technically, you're under probation… thought Mogi, useless as it was to think those sort of things to himself.
They waited outside the studio for the cab that Mogi called. Traffic around this time may be bad. He wondered how long they had to wait there. Hopefully, the cabs get there before the fans do…
A motorcycle approached them. The rider wore a red helmet with a tinted face-shield, and an all-black attire.
Mogi's senses heightened. "Misa-Misa—" he yelled out, but at that moment, his vision got clouded with smoke.
Amidst the hissing of a smoke bomb, he heard a shrill scream, which was muffled the next moment, and then the sound of a motorcycle speeding away from him.
When the smoke dissipated, all that was left of Misa-Misa were her bright pink flip-flops. They lay useless and upside-down on the sidewalk.
Forcing himself to clear his head, Mogi pressed a button on his belt. He can only hope that Ryuzaki had somehow seen the kidnapping from the tower.
Misora Naomi had on a white button-down shirt, blue jeans, a pair of eyeglasses, and wore her long dark hair in a bun. She had with her a paper bag filled with groceries. To the rest of the crowd, she was just another passer-by, a perfectly average Japanese woman who just realized that a traffic accident had just taken place. She just hoped that this new disguise of hers would be enough to fool that guy…
She looked at the bloodied motorcycle rider. The guy's limbs were broken and useless. A doctor who happened to be in the crowd confirmed that he was still breathing, but he'd lost a massive amount of blood. He still called for an ambulance, but it was clear that the guy had no hope.
"Poor man… but he was going too fast," muttered one of the people near her. Like Naomi's disguise, she looked like another housewife who also came from the grocery store.
"I guess even the helmet won't save you if you go too fast," answered one of her friends.
No… this looks too convenient, thought Naomi. Are you Kira? Could you have been responsible for this? It seemed that you were here by chance, but this could be according to your plan. From her peripheral vision, she saw the suspect moving.
Where's he going…? He's calm… but he's definitely moving with precision…
Misora narrowed her eyes and made sure that her button camera, despite its lack of power for details, captured the suspect's every movement. This may very well be the slip that L's been waiting for…
(Kira)
Ashes, bones, and a number of other particles that I'd rather not know suddenly appeared over the ground where the death god Rem used to hover. I was a bit surprised when that happened. It was an amazing sight.
"So… that's how shinigami die," I muttered to myself.
I walked over to where the ashes were. Everyone was too busy gawking and gasping over the bloody motorcycle accident. I can't blame them—strangely enough, Rem managed to make the accident itself seem quieter than it should be. By making the motorcycle crash in an empty alley, she managed to avoid witnesses during the accident, and allowed Misa to escape more cleanly.
(Although I could hardly call it 'clean'—the girl was bloodied all over and probably had injuries that required immediate expert medical attention.)
Her transformation into ashes also happened in a hidden place. The only reason I found her remains was that I saw her as a shinigami before it happened.
"Eh. I wonder why she'd do such a stupid thing," I muttered as I picked up her Death Note and calmly put it inside my bag.
The only sensible explanation was that the speeding motorcycle was bound to get into an accident, and Misa would have died in that accident. That shinigami, she can't bear to watch Misa die, even if Kira or L weren't responsible for it. Rem must have saved her by specifying in the Death Note that the motorcycle rider be the only one to die. That would extend Misa's lifespan just fine, but that would set Rem's lifespan to zero.
Well, I shouldn't complain. I'm damned lucky that I happened to be here today. Ryuk is with my pawn now. Now I have another weapon to replace my old one. I just have to find a way to meet with my shinigami sometime soon…
L… your Second Kira is gone. You've been quiet with me for a long time too. I know that you're preparing for another confrontation, soon… ideally, with everybody who mattered being there.
Face-to-face. I've talked to you before, right L? But face-to-face, that's the only way to go. You'd better make this good.
- Chapter 09 end -
Notes: Chocolate? Why chocolate? It's because… I like chocolate, that's why! :) Anyway, I'll make the notes more helpful this time, so please read this particularly long one:
I hope that my intentions for this story are clearer now. The question is not exactly, "Who is Kira?" per se, although that was the only question back during the earlier chapters. Now that there are more tangles, you have to answer the following to have full bragging rights:
What is Near's role in this story?
What is Mello's role in this story?
What is Matt's role in this story?
I'm making a post in brain-eater-jr dot tabulas dot com, which will contain a very short list of clues or hints that you deserve to know. If you want a challenge, then don't go to the website. In any case, if you're really serious about solving the mystery, you still need a lot of thinking. Haha!
I'm aiming for just thirteen chapters, by the way, and that already includes the epilogue. The revelations will probably start from the next chapter onwards. Put on your seatbelts, kiddos! Were you right about Kira? You're gonna know soon.