I Have the Right to Destroy
Chapter 12: Mello
It's mysterious, how the final seconds of your life can stretch out to abnormally long intervals. Mello knew that he wasn't going to die at that moment—like everyone else, he came in there with a plan. But for some reason, when he closed his eyes during the thirty-ninth second, memories flashed underneath his eyelids like firelight.
For him, it started after the burning of Whammy's House. Back then, he didn't guess that Kira was the one responsible for Roger's death, and that the burning also served as the annihilation of all physical evidence (such as DNA, medical records) that could be linked to any of children from Whammy's House.
I have to say it: I'm impressed, but... I knew it was you from the very beginning. You kept your mouth shut for once. I knew that it was good that you were so careful, because that's the only way that Kira would succeed. Sadly, you were with someone who knew better.
That conversation was more important than any of them realized. It was the moment that Kira challenged not only L, but Near and Mello as well. 'Kill me if you can. Let's see who'll beat L.' That was what you wanted to say to us, wasn't it, Matt? With you, it's always all about games.
Mello left Whammy's House with chocolate, a few guns and an address book, which he hid in a toolbox under his bed. Luckily, they were intact and nobody knew that they were there. Before he was taken to Whammy's, he was given a list of people to go to in times of trouble—these were the ones who had transportation, who can give fake IDs and passports, and whom Mello could ask for money as he needed.
(He also found one of the photo albums in the rubble, which had a number of his solo shots. In mild panic, he tried to set them on fire. He succeeded, but some of the fire got to his face. He resolved not to give in to moments of stupidity like that again.)
As a result, he was in London in no time—he knew he had to get away from Matt before he figured out how to get his true name. He knew that it was worthless, of course. He was probably just buying time to figure out what to do next.
Who knew that my new weapon against Matt would be in London at around the same time?
I guess I'm just a lucky bastard.
It happened like this:
Without a disguise on, Mello was in a café, reading the newspapers for more reports about Kira and L. They were playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Desecration Smile over the speakers. A cup of hot chocolate was on his table. Its aroma floated around his nostrils like a pleasant song to a pair of able ears.
At that moment, an incredibly small girl walked in the café. She sat at a small, round table next to his booth.
As a waiter approached and took her order, Mello discovered that she was a foreigner, based on her accent. Maybe Japanese, because she found it difficult to distinguish her r's from her l's.
After the waiter left, she looked at Mello and saw the newspapers on his table. Without hesitation, she hopped up to him and said, "Borrow newspapers?"
Mello, not wishing any more attention, gestured towards a pile of broadsheets that he'd finished reading. The girl smiled, plopped down at a seat in front of him, and began reading.
Is she trying to be cute? thought Mello in annoyance. He tried to ignore her and concentrated instead on a news article about Kira's last famous victim: a prominent politician in Japan who was accused of raping an elementary school student. Strange that Matt would kill somebody like…
His thoughts were interrupted by a clapping noise. He put down the newspaper and glared at her.
She stopped. "I'm sorry. I just feel happy because of Kira…" she said with an honest smile on her face.
Mello's eyes widened. With the ugliest snarl that he could muster, he said, "A Kira supporter, are you?"
The girl gasped. Her smile faded, and she only looked back at him with uncertainty.
"You shouldn't support bloody scum like that. Kira doesn't deserve his power. He's the death of justice," he said. (He wasn't afraid of making her cry, that's for sure.)
With watery eyes, the girl fell silent, as if she were seriously contemplating on his words. After awhile, she raised her head and simply said, "I love Kira… I do not want to listen to people say bad things about Kira." And then, silently, she slipped her hand inside her glittery black handbag.
What's she doing? Something's... unnatural, thought Mello. With a frown, he reached out and easily grabbed her bag from her.
The girl gasped stupidly again. She held a very small pen in her hand. Mello looked inside the bag and saw an open notebook. He pulled it out and read the open page:
Mihael Keeh
His eyes widened. What was most of his name doing there? "Hey you. How did you—"
When he looked back at the girl, he saw that a great winged beast made out of bones was floating behind her and was glaring at him.
Mello wanted to scream and curse at the sight, but the girl jumped on the table and put a hand over his mouth before he was able to. In Japanese, she squealed desperately, "Please don't scream! I can explain!"
Desperate for presence of mind, Mello put the notebook inside his own bag and grabbed a gun along the way. He let the girl see what he did, but hid it from the rest of the café.
The girl bit her lower lip and said, "Rem will kill you if you kill me. Please let me explain everything later…"
Mello narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but he nodded. He decided not to question the apparition anymore. That thing looks like it can kill me if I do anything suspicious. He gently took her hand off his mouth and replied in Japanese, "There's an inn called Momos not far from here. 7 PM. Come by yourself, explain everything to me, and maybe I'll give your notebook back to you," he said.
The girl nodded. When she saw that he didn't let go of her hand yet, she blushed.
… what's the matter with her now? I don't like that smile on her face. Mello let her hand go.
She got off from the table, bowed bashfully, and went out of the café, not even bothering to wait for her order. The monster flew next to her as she left. It gave Mello a dirty look before they disappeared.
After that was the meeting in the Momos inn, where Mello asked Amane Misa to work with her to defeat Kira and rule the world with her Death Note. Perhaps it was due to his luck or alternative fashion sense that Misa believed that she fell in love with him, and thus easily agreed to whatever he said.
"Kira judged the person who killed my parents… everyone knows that, and everyone knows that I love Kira because of what he did for me and my family! So please… Misa can do whatever you ask me to do!" she had told him.
So, she's ready to lie to everybody, even to Kira himself. Can I trust this woman, I wonder, thought Mello. It was only their second meeting, but apparently she was ready to abandon her loyalties to Kira and to risk her life along the way for him.
It was the beginning of the beautiful relationship between Second Kira and Mello: one of the biggest threats against Kira.
"Ah, Mimochka-chan doesn't have photos of K, N, or L?"
"No, they're too careful to have their photos taken by anybody," answered Mello. "It would be difficult to find them, too. K, especially—he looks like everyone else and is good with disguises." Yes, that's another one of Kira's dangerous features: his unremarkable features. Unlike Mello and Near, who had dangerous eyes and other distinctive features, Matt looked like everyone else. Without his goggles, his face is a blank canvas. With his wigs, clothes, and make-up, he's a chameleon.
"Honto… ano, would you say that K looks like that purse-snatcher over there?" said Misa, nonchalantly pointing at a young boy running away gleefully with a handbag that was obviously not his.
The boy had longish brown hair in a bonnet, wore round glasses and a striped shirt, and had freckles all over his cheeks. He also had a cigarette hanging from his lips. Mello tilted his head and nodded. "Actually, I would… but K probably looked less distinct."
Misa looked at the frown on his face. "Mimochka doesn't enjoy crime either, huh? Say… do you want me to write it down?" she asked.
Wheels started turning in his head. Now that he had a weapon, all he needed was a message for Matt, Near, and L. "Mimi, I'd like you to write down more for me this time," he said.
"Anything for you," she said gleefully.
Now to put my talent for poetry in action, he thought.
Labyrinth of steel and light,
Amongst the startling stones, you thrive:
Jaded by the children's blood spilt in your name
Altered by the fear of the new world
Embraced by the greed in your enemies' eyes
Verify it with your face, Nihilist!
Eyes as wide as yours command the death of Death
Send in your beasts to eat me
I will be there so catch me,
Minotaur:
Kill me, kill you
I will not drown in the
River of death
Alone
A poem for everyone included in the game: Labyrinth, Nihilist, Minotaur. L, Near, Matt. When the first letters of the lines are read and arranged, it would read, LAJAE VES IM: KIRA.
Mail Jeevas: Kira.
Yes, he knew of Matt's name ahead of time. All Misa had to do was to see his face, and he could have easily been killed.
Minotaur's death, orchestrated by the actions of Theseus.
But Mello wanted to make sure that he won not only against Kira, but also against L and Near. This is why, at the last moment, he asked Misa to write in, "Smears the poem, deems it unrecognizable, and only leaves the first line and the last two lines readable." He knew that if Matt died too early, the blame for all the killings would naturally go to Mello. And it would be much simpler for Near and L to capture him and Misa. The only way was for Misa to see Near's and L's faces and kill them all at the same time.
"Or at least get rid of L and Matt at the same time… I can beat Near by myself," said Mello. "So you have to make yourself obvious to both L and Matt. Can you do that?"
"I've an idea! I can send a message to Sakura TV and tell them that I want to meet Kira. Both of them would use that to find me… All I need to do with Matt is to see his true face, right? He won't be a problem… and if L is good, he'd be the one to find me, right, right? And if I see his face, all I have to do is to write his name down in the Death Note…"
"If they capture you and make you unable to write, then what?" asked Mello sternly.
Misa fell silent.
Mello sighed. "Rem… is there anything we can do to make sure that the Death Note remains hidden from L?"
The shinigami, without fuss, said, "If you're talking about a defense tactic for when Misa is captured by L, there is a way… and that is, if Misa gives up ownership of her notebook. However, if you do that, all her memories about killing with the notebook would be erased."
"See, Mello… our secret would be safe. Matt-chan worried about the same thing, and told me to do it if I get cornered by L," said Misa. "Let me do this."
Mello, with his scary eyes, looked at the girl and the shinigami. "Misa, you're good at acting, right?"
Misa nodded. "I told you, I can lie to everybody else but you," she answered.
After a long period of thought, Mello looked up at Rem. "Rem… is it against the rules for Shinigami to lie?"
"It's no good, Mello," said Rem. "She still has the shinigami eyes, but the man called Ryuzaki doesn't show himself to her."
Mello frowned. The final piece of the puzzle wasn't there yet.
"I can kill Ryuzaki, Kira, and the rest of the task force for Misa… just say the word," she said.
"Rem, let me ask you: how short is Misa's lifespan now?"
(Rule XVIII: The gods of death must not tell humans the names or life spans of individuals he sees. This is to avoid confusion in the human world.)
It was hard looking for traces of human emotion in her face, but there was an aura of sadness and terrible unease around her. After a long silence, she answered, "I can't tell you that."
"I see, it's very short… then, Rem, I'm afraid it's too risky," said Mello. With a scowl on his face, he explained, "If you killed Ryuzaki or Kira, you might be extending Misa's lifespan. You would die before you can write down everyone's names in the Death Note. Those who would be left will have enough to say that we are responsible for these deaths. That would be enough of a weapon against Misa, and in turn, against me—Near would get me, Matt might find out that you're dead and kill Misa. We'd both lose."
Rem looked at him. Her fangs glinted in the darkness of his room.
"Rem, leave it to me. Don't break the rules. I don't want any more risks than there are already," said Mello. He took out the Death Note from inside his coat and flipped through the rules.
(Rule IV: Gods of death, the original owners of the Death Note, do not do, in principle, anything which will help or prevent the deaths in the note.)
"Anyway, Misa lent me her notebook after 'giving up ownership,' right? I bet Matt already found out that it's missing from your little hiding place in the forest."
Rem nodded. "He knows that he can't kill Misa because I'll kill him if that happens."
I tore a piece of the Death Note and gave it to Rem. She took it in her bony fingers. "Go back to Misa. Put this into her underwear while she's bathing or dressing up or something, but do it discreetly. Be careful about the cameras. You'll have to find me somewhere else if you need to," said Mello.
As he watched her disappear into the wall, he thought, So, even shinigami act stupidly because of love. However, I can't believe that I'm trying to save this shinigami and that girl… the things I do to beat L.
Mello stared at his photo. With a backdrop of trees and golden sunlight, his image smiled awkwardly back at him. This was him, only a little over a year ago. Besides his height and taste in clothes, nothing much has changed.
Damn. So my scar was for nothing, he thought in irritation.
Why did Near go through all the trouble of giving this picture to me?
No, that was a ruse. He probably knows about me and second Kira. That was all he wanted to say to me— "Even if I didn't return your photograph, you wouldn't have been killed by those who only needed a face to kill."
… that little bastard, thought Mello. He even had the gall to bring one of his assistants with him. He's not keeping his actions a secret from me.
But he knew that Near was also telling him something else. Near didn't answer his question when he asked, "Do you think I'm Kira?" He kept his answers purposefully vague, which meant that Near was also sure that Matt was Kira.
So… Near, all you're telling me is that whoever gets Kira first is a race.
Mello smiled.
That will be me. I'll kill Matt first, and then I'll kill you and L. And I'll rule the world with the Death Note… as Kira and L.
The greatest victory.
During a blank period, something unexpected happened.
Amane Misa was kidnapped by an unknown man. Mello had guessed that it was one of her stalkers who did it.
Rem died that day. Mello had guessed that Misa would have died in an accident if the shinigami hadn't killed the stalker with the Death Note. However, now that she was gone, Matt, who was conveniently in the same place, had taken the Death Note…
He knew this from Misa, who appeared in front of Mello that day. Thanks to serious injuries, she was bleeding everywhere, and Mello had no choice but to let her in. But she assured him that she wouldn't die—the rules of the Death Note wouldn't allow it. She also told him that she wasn't being manipulated by Matt's Death Note.
"Prove it," said Mello, as he quietly tended to her injuries.
With a quivering lower lip, she reached inside her shirt and pulled out a piece of paper. She passed it on to him. He read:
Amane Misa
Suicide
14 February 2006
Throws self into Tokyo Bay and drowns to death
The 23-day rule, thought Mello. And this is definitely the piece that I gave to Rem…
"I… I didn't have a pen with me… I wrote it with my blood as I ran away," she sobbed. "It was the only thing I could think… Rem is d-dead… Kira will want to kill me with his Death Note… I didn't want Kira to m-manipulate me into h-h-having Mello killed… I'd rather destroy myself!"
... I see. Mello stood up. "Misa. I'd like you to give up ownership of the notebook now."
Her mouth formed into a shocked 'o'. "Why? Don't you want me to kill Kira, L, and Near for you?" she asked with a shaky voice.
Mello shook his head. "We have to make Kira believe that he killed you. If not, then it will take longer before he would allow for a confrontation. You have to go into hiding now, Misa, you'll have to give me the notebook so I can kill them myself."
At least I don't have to worry about killing you afterwards. I can rule the world with the notes.
Misa wept. "No! If I do that, I'll be worthless to Mello! I won't give up the notebook! You can't make me!"
Mello sighed. "Fine… you'll give it up sometime, Misa. Believe me. I'm sorry, but I'll have to leave you in this place. Don't worry, you won't be found by anyone here, unless you go out and show yourself. I'll be taking the notebook with me."
"B… but..!!"
"No. You have 23 days left, Misa. Remember that."
She tried to suppress her sobs.
Seeing this, Mello tried desperately to soften his gaze. It was a challenge, yes. Even more so was the reassuring tone that his voice carried as he spoke,"… don't worry. I'll be back to look after you after it's all over. So don't go out, okay?" With that, Mello left the room, never to return.
Days later, a rather bored and depressed Misa desperately tried to forget that she was going to die after a couple of weeks, and that Mello probably wouldn't see her again. She turned to her one remaining cell phone for entertainment (i.e., the one she kept closest to her body, and only turned on during emergencies). She had taken out the SIM card so that it would be difficult to trace where she was, but this meant that she had nothing else to do but to look at her old files.
She had listened to each and every ringing tone stored in the phone and felt that she could hum them perfectly. It probably meant that she listened to them too much.
She senselessly hummed the Nokia tune as she went to her pictures folder. She was obedient and didn't take any pictures of Matt or Mello with this phone. All that was there were two-year-old pictures of her and her friends.
"Ah… here we are in the Tokyo Tower…" Upon focusing on a specific face, her eyes widened. "Oh, no… Kiyomi-chan…"
Misa couldn't see Kiyomi's lifespan.
Throwing caution to the wind, she immediately pulled her phone apart, put the SIM card in place, and called Mello.
She had told him of what she saw. She must be one of Kira's pawns… Kira must have many more weapons at his disposal… I have to give up ownership of the note to you, Mello. You need the powers now more than ever.
He was silent for a long time before he said, "I am the only one who can do it". And then the transmission was disconnected.
Misa crossed herself and grasped a small, metal crucifix hanging from her neck, the way that she saw Mello do countless times during their journey. She prayed that Mello somehow get the shinigami eyes for himself, even without the aid of the shinigami.
And then, she gave up ownership of the notebook.
"Victory is mine, L."
All eyes turned to Matt as the 40th second passed. What... did he just say?
Nothing happened.
Even after the entire minute passed, no-one was dying of a heart attack. "… what's going on?" stammered one of the members of the Japanese Task Force. "No one's… dead…"
"G-God?!" Mikami looked at the notebook, and then up at Matt, who lost the cocky smile on his face. "I wrote down their names like you told me… God… I only did what you told me!!"
Lester and Giovanni from the SPK took Mikami and cuffed his hands behind his back. Because he was so flustered, X-Kira didn't have a chance to put up a fight. The killer notebook, which once had an aura of power around it, fell helplessly on the floor.
What's going on?
Near picked up the notebook, opened it to the last page with writing on it, and said, "Everyone, please take a look at this."
On the page was a short list of names.
Mihael Keehl Nate River Yagami Light Stephen Loud Anthony Carter Halle Bullock Kanzo Mogi Matsuda Tota Yagami Souichirou Aizawa Suuichi Ide Hideki Misora Naomi
"Everyone, confirm for yourselves that your true names are listed in the Death Note. I can tell you that my true name—Nate River—is part of the list, as are the true names of the members of the SPK. If you'll notice, there is one name missing from here… I wonder whose name it could be…?"
"That's you, isn't it, Matt?" Near pointed at Matt, whose face was contorted into a snarl.
"Mikami was definitely calling you God, and said that he did as you told him to. You also said Victory is mine at the last moment; that's as good as a confession. This is undeniable proof that you are Kira."
- Chapter 12 end -
Notes: Omoidoori! Omoidoori! I felt so much like canon Light when I uploaded the last chapter. Oh my gosh. It's ridiculous, really. I was giggling when I read the reviews and notes. I'm really sorry, but I realize now why L lies and Aiber cons and Light and Near screws with everyone's heads. It's so darn exciting! :D
Please hang around for the last chapters. It's obvious that there's a final twist, but how? How? How? Unfortunately, it will take me longer to post them since I'll be beaching, yeah! But I'll be posting the "Final Tricks and Death" chapter, as well as the epilogue, at the same time. :)