Howdy all!
I couldn't resist updating any later than this! I just got so inspired yesterday and I finished this whole chapter within about 5 hours :D
So, I hope it turned out well and that you all will enjoy it. I'm quite proud of it actually.

Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Tsugimi Obha & Takeshi Obata, but the OC's are mine!


Chapter 8 – The Confrontation

Abruptly, all the power went out in the building, and fire alarms began to go off, deafening them slightly.

Their question was answered.

Immediately, Kumo, Ame and Tsuki shot off to arm themselves with everything they had. Kumo also chucked his laptop in his bag, as well as L's and they were ready to go within seconds.

This was a matter of life and death, in every way shape and form. They had more at stake than just their own lives here. They couldn't stick together and help each other out, because if they all got caught, and couldn't defend themselves, it wouldn't be too hard for the Aka Sora to kill them, and L.

Without even speaking, they had made the decision to split up, and that Tsuki would accompany and protect L. Luckily, Watari had gone out, so he wasn't in danger, and Taiyou was either getting some rest, or being stubborn and continuing to work.

Quickly, Tsuki ran into the bedroom and grabbed a pillow, and removed the case from it in one swift movement. She called L over to her while she opened Hisuiro's enclosure and grabbed him, then proceeded to shove him in the pillow case, again in one swift movement, but still being careful not to hurt him. He may be as tame as the proverbial family dog, but if hurt, he had every right to defend himself.

"You have to look after him. If he gets dropped or left behind, I'll leave you behind." Tsuki said seriously, with venom dripping in her tone, which was very flustered and worried. She stuffed the pillowcase with the python inside in her small back pack that she emptied out on the floor, and pushed it into his arms.

Ame and Kumo had already left, and neither Tsuki or L had any idea where they had gone. Since it was around 2.30AM, it was pitch black, and most people were still asleep. The hotel patrons would have been woken by the fire alarm, and were probably making their way down to the lobby through the fire exits.

It would be easier for them to blend into the crowd, but it was clear enough from the past few murders that the Aka Sora would undoubtedly know what they look like, and they didn't have time to disguise themselves and then go. They had to get out of the hotel, and as far away as possible. Now.

"L. We're going to wait a few minutes. I want all the innocent bystanders out of the way. This shit is about to get real and I can't have anyone getting in my way. Which also goes for you. If I say jump, you jump. If I say duck, you duck. I will protect you, but you have to trust me and do exactly as I say. Got it?" she commanded, with all the power and authority that her position in the Sora Ops suggested, and more.

He nodded, even though he was very unsure about all of this, and to be quite honest, absolutely terrified. He'd never been so close to dying before, let alone been so close to inevitable danger. Both their lives were being threatened, as well as Ame and Kumo's, so he would just have to push his fears aside and concentrate.

Silently, the blue-eyed woman walked over to window and looked outside, getting a perfect view of the front of the hotel, and seeing all the guests standing outside in their bed clothes, or dressing gowns, looking very confused and tired.

The power in the whole block was out, which would make it much easier for them to escape under the cover of darkness, but it would also make the chances of ambushes and capture much higher. It gave each side and advantage, and also a disadvantage. The Aka Sora were ahead at the moment, catching them by surprise, but the Sora Ops were all too talented at levelling the playing field to let them keep the upper hand for very long.

She walked back over to L, noticing how much he would stand out in the white shirt and blue jeans. With feline grace, she stepped over to Ame's bag of clothes and grabbed out a shirt and a pair of pants and guessed that they would fit and if they didn't, they'd have to do for the time being

As they both listened out for any sounds, even the slightest breath or footstep, Tsuki gave him the clothes and turned around to at least let him change his pants in moderate privacy whilst detaching one of her leg holsters that held three kunai, and attached it to his leg after he had put the pants on, not giving him any warning, making him feel a little awkward momentarily.

He pulled his white shirt off, and put on the black one, before Tsuki handed him one of her spare cloth masks. She pulled on her Sora Ops mask, the crescent moon symbol standing out in the minimal moonlight that shone into the room.

The young woman turned to him, and took a deep breath in and out, grabbed three kunai from inside her jacket and stalked towards the door. L grabbed one of the kunai from his holster, being careful not to cut himself with it. A blood trail could easily be tracked, even by a child.

Tsuki held up her hand, which he could only just see and one by one put up her fingers in a countdown. On three, she opened the door, making sure to not let it creak. She seemed to go in a trance and listen for a sound and attempt to 'sense' the presence of any other person near by. After a moment, she lifted her head back up and stepped outside the room, preparing herself for a sudden attack.

She waved to him to come to her, letting him know that it was safe and he quickly repositioned the back pack before walking over to her, as quietly as he could, which turns out, was almost silent. Pushing his self-impressed feeling aside, terror started to kick in again, and he began to shake.

A hand sat on his shoulder, and before he could yell out or whatever his body decided to do first, he realised that Tsuki was facing him and it was her hand on his shoulder. She looked at him and tried to telepathically tell him that it would be okay, and her gesture seemed to calm him a little as his muscles relaxed and he exhaled a little deeper.

She pointed to the long hallway behind her, and they both started jogging off in that direction, whilst keeping a close eye and ear out for anyone, and also trying to be completely silent at the same time. On their right, L noticed an open door to a room and pointed to it after getting his temporary bodyguard's attention. She shook her head, knowing that it might be a trap, and they couldn't take the chance of getting stuck in one room.

Her plan was to get out of the hotel by going out the window at the end of the hallway, scale down to the next level via grapple and get through the next window, then make their way to the adjacent side of the hotel and continue the process until they reached ground floor.

It would be too easy for the Aka Sora to cut the grapple rope and let them fall to their deaths or pull them back up and kill them if they found them trying to abseil down the whole building, especially because they were on the fifth storey.

So that was why they had to take their time and swap side of the building, to hopefully cause confusion and avoid any patrols they may be doing. More than likely, they had people watching in opposite buildings, or on the ground itself and were going to use them as assistance to help them find their targets.

Both of them only hoped that Kumo and Ame had already gotten out of harm's way.

They finally reached the end of the hallway, and Tsuki picked the lock on the window without a second thought and opened it. She looked down at her utility belt, simultaneously realising that she only had one grapple, and that L would have just grab onto her each time they scaled down the outside hotel wall.

L also seemed to realise and moved out of her way while she attached the grapple hook to the wall. The window was only just barely big enough for her to stand at her full height and she turned her back to L so he could jump up and grab onto her. It ended up being quieter and more stable than he had anticipated, and carefully, whilst holding tightly onto the rope, she slowly turned around on the window frame so that she was looking inside the hotel and down the hallway.

With a quick check, she saw no one there, and began to descend down the wall, being very, very careful since she was holding a lot more weight than usual. When they reached the next window, she stopped just above it and cautiously levelled out until they were horizontal and peeked her head down far enough to see inside.

She didn't see anyone, so she let the rope out further and carefully opened the window from the outside using the same small piece of metal which she had picked the other window's lock with. L was amazed to see her true prowess and be right there in the action, no matter how scared he was and he had a feeling that thanks to her abilities, they would get out of this alive and in one piece.

Instead of climbing inside with him on her back, she spun around and let him clamber inside, and quickly grabbing his arm, just before he slipped off the small table sitting underneath the window frame, which would undoubtedly give away their location.

When she was also inside the hotel again, she disconnected the grapple from the wall above her with the simple push of a button and reeled it in silently. She stepped down off the small table, shut the window behind them and again tried to 'sense' or hear the presence of their enemy in the vicinity.

So far, so good, and they continued down the nearly endless hallway once Tsuki had deemed it safe to move ahead.

They went to the opposite wall in the hotel without any incident and without being found and chased, and repeated the slow, but important process of picking the window lock, opening the window to it's fullest extent, attaching the grapple, getting L on her back, abseiling down the wall, open the window from the outside, successfully get them both inside then detach the grapple and shut the window behind them.

L was getting a little fatigued from jogging so much, and tensing himself for battle every few minutes, but he kept up with Tsuki as much as he could while being careful about the live reptile that was unfortunately stuffed in the pillowcase in his back pack.

Instead of going to the opposite wall this time, they went to the wall on the left and again repeated the process and finally got through the third storey window a few adrenalin pumping and tension filled minutes later. Tsuki thought she saw someone as they headed down the hallway towards the right wall, this time in the furthest corner away from them. She gestured for L to get down and hide, before she stepped around the wall and realised that someone was definitely there, and they hadn't seemed to notice their presence yet.

She nodded to L, who turned around to fall back even more and he just hoped that she would be okay and that this wouldn't give away their location. He heard a light whiz of something flying through the air very quickly, and was harshly shoved out of the way, then there was three quiet thuds, and when Tsuki walked briskly over to him, he knew that she had successfully taken him out without anyone noticing.

"Are you alright? He's dead." she whispered softly to him, looking him over for torn clothes that would suggest an injury. She saw nothing and looked back towards his face, and straight into his dark eyes. He looked absolutely terrified, but she let him keep his pride, and said nothing.

He nodded and let out the breath he had been holding in quietly and they continued down, and went to the window third from the corner and began abseiling down the wall again. They got inside the second storey window undetected, but as they made their way down the hall, and got close to the open area in the middle, Tsuki and L both knew something wasn't right.

It was more than likely, that up ahead, were several Aka Sora and they had planned to ambush the Sora Ops agents while they made their way down the levels of the hotel. She doubted that without a large force, that they could stop both Kumo and Ame, but she had a feeling that they were both safe.

Now, it was time for her to show the Aka Sora who they were fucking with.

With a deep breath, she pulled out three kunai, putting each of them between her fingers, and had some shuriken ready to go. She knew her gun was at her waist as well, but she'd never use it unless she had to. Stealthily, she crept out into the main area, and was able to pin-point the most likely hiding spots for Aka Sora, as well as places that she could stay in.

To her left she heard a whiz and she bent her back so that her head would get out of the way of the weapon that just glinted slightly in the moonlight that was shining through the window, giving away it's location, and the location of the assassin.

Three shuriken were flung in their direction and she heard tearing of cloth, more than likely meaning that they now had quite a large laceration on them somewhere. She heard two thuds of the other two landing in the wall, and dodged the next kunai that came flying towards her from a 2 o'clock direction, also given away by the moonlight.

Suddenly, the assassins revealed themselves and ran at her. She moved to the centre of the room and began throwing weapons at the four Aka Sora currently coming at her. One of them got hit in the leg, stopping them and putting them to the ground, and she swiftly followed up with a senbon to the spinal cord, killing him instantly.

Two of the others managed to get to her first, and the other a bit slower because of the deep wound on his leg, assumptively caused by the shuriken she had thrown at him. For a minute she fought in close range combat against all three of them, again amazing L who had pulled back enough to be out of the way and out of sight, but still able to see the outcome of the battle, just in case he had to run and find another way out if things didn't go right.

Several times, she was nearly hit by a punch or kick, or cut by a blade, but managed to be agile enough to dodge, block and counter them all and give even more than was being thrown at her. The injured one was picked off quickly, receiving a large kunai slash to his torso, and a cut just deep enough to reach his jugular vein in his neck, causing him to bleed out within moments.

Tsuki was able to take out another one by aiming a perfectly thrown kunai at him, which hit his heart and killed him. After fighting back and forth with the last one for a few minutes, who was clearest the strongest of the four, he just managed to nick her with a kunai on her arm, but not enough for her to even take much notice and block his next punch and kick him backwards into the wall with all her strength, and throw a shuriken which embedded into his neck straight after.

She breathed out and so did L, and she waved him over to her after checking to make sure that there was no one else around, and that the four Aka Sora were truly dead. He was in a state of shock, after seeing her handle four, well-built and well-trained men take her on, and not even seem to be very phased by being able to take them out, or killing them.

He supposed that after dealing with this kind of thing on a daily basis 'since she was a kid' as Ame had mentioned earlier that night, she would be almost completely desensitised and jaded towards both her being able to defeat four men, as well as being forced to kill them.

Without being given any more time to contemplate, they moved on, heading towards the same side of the hotel that they had gone out the first time, but headed towards further towards the left this time. In a few minutes, they touched the ground and began running towards their car which was in the outside car park behind the hotel.

Except they didn't go to the car park. Tsuki led him to a side street a few hundred metres from the hotel and they made their way up the street a little until they reached...a motorbike?

"Back up." Tsuki answered L's mental question quietly before he could ask it out loud and hesitantly hopped on the back, and wrapped his arms around her waist after putting on a helmet she passed to him. She took off her mask and quickly put her own helmet on, and put her mask in her inside jacket pocket.

The bike was one that she'd owned for many years, and fixed up herself when she was younger and she had been using it as a back up vehicle ever since this case had started. And she was definitely glad that she had now. It would much faster and easier to get as far away from here as possible on the motorbike rather than a car.

Luckily, both her and L were small, so that even though the bike only had a 250 cc engine, it would still up and go and get them away asap. Soon enough, they were flying down the street and away from the hotel, which L noticed was actually going up in flames. So the Aka Sora had actually set the hotel on fire, more than likely to hide the evidence of their attempted murder on the Aka Sora member, and himself.

When they came to a stop at a red light, she grabbed her mobile phone out and called Kumo's, then handed it to L, who was slightly reluctant to let her go, even though they'd come to a stop. The light went green and a few moments later, Kumo answered his phone, sounding insanely relieved to know that the both of them were alright.

He had already met up with Ame and they were heading towards the next town over. It would be a bit of a long ride for L, since he was clearly terrified, but it would only take about forty minutes to get to the next town with her in control of the speed.

As she rode, she thought back to what had happened. Tonight, she had to kill five men. Granted, they would have killed her if given the chance, but it never sat well with her. No matter how many people she had killed, which for someone in her line of work, was startlingly small, thanks to her ability to incapacitate someone completely for a short amount of time with her senbon, it never got easier.

Well, in a way it did. But it wasn't easier to kill as such. It was more of a resignation. She knew that she had no other choice sometimes, so it was like the person had made the decision for her. If she had been on her own, and not had to worry about L's safety, as well as her own, she would have captured all five men and interrogated every last one of them until they told her everything she needed to know, and more, then let them rot in jail for the rest of their lives for being involved with such criminal acts.

In fact, she was surprised that there was so few of them. She had almost expected a battalion to be spread out over the hotel, but that didn't seem to matter because the four that she had to fight face to face were very capable and had given her a might bit of trouble.

Whoever was training them, or whatever their background was, their fighting style was so similar to her own, that she had some trouble reading the movements for a moment. But halfway through the fight, she slipped into almost a state of complete muscle memory. She did recognise the fighting style, but just couldn't recall where from.

Tsuki was jolted out of her thoughts by another red light and she stopped comfortably just before the white line. She took the opportunity to see how L was doing. For the whole ride so far, he had his face pressed in the flat plane between her shoulder blades and his arms were still tight around her waist. Now that they had stopped moving, she could feel that he was still shaking.

"Ryuzaki. It's okay. I told you I would protect you, and I did." she spoke over the sound of the idling engine, and turned her head to look over her shoulder enough to see his still scared looking expression through the small space in the helmet.

He didn't speak, but just relaxed his grip a little, and his face became slightly more calm, but still nothing like his usual blank expression.

When they arrived in the next town, she asked him to call Ame and Kumo and ask where they were. A while later, they met up at a small inn, with a bar down the bottom. They decided that a low-key establishment would be best for the moment, and they needed to get something to eat as well as contact Watari, who was probably worried sick and Taiyou, who would probably already know about the incident and was just waiting for them to contact him when it was possible.

They walked in to the inn, even though it was so early in the morning, and the lady behind the reception was a bit confused to see people here so late/early, but also to see such an odd mix. Kumo, who was tall with a slim build, Ame who had black hair, grey-blue eyes and was only a bit taller than Tsuki, who had extremely long, black hair, pulled back into a plait, icy-blue eyes and pale skin. And finally L, who had dark, scruffy hair, with dark eyes, and pale skin that made him look even more gaunt from lack of sleep and proper nourishment.

It certainly would have been a sight to see at this time of the morning. The woman apologised, saying she didn't expect guests so early, and asked them how she could help them. They asked for rooms and what time they could get something to eat.

She told them that they only had two rooms left, one with two single beds and one with a double bed in it and that the chef didn't arrive until 10.30AM. They took both rooms and thanked her when she gave them the keys. Also, they slipped a few more notes than necessary over the counter, for the discretion of them never being there.

They went up to their rooms and immediately Ame threw Tsuki the key to the double bed room and unlocked his own door before flopping down on the bed. A small huff of amusement escaped her, and Kumo shrugged and entered after Ame, making the unspoken decision that her and L would share.

This behaviour was a little odd, coming from Kumo, considering that he would probably never let her share with Ame, since they both knew how much of a crush the guy had on her, let alone any other male. But she figured that since she had been through a lot, he wanted her to have the double bed instead of being cramped in a single, like he would be.

Kumo smiled and shut the door, and she turned around and unlocked their room. She opened the door and stepped aside to make way for L to go through like he usually did, but he didn't this time. A shaped-black eyebrow raised in wonder and she waited for something to happen.

"Ladies first..." the young man offered a little awkwardly, still a bit shaken up, but clearly trying to pull himself together.

She nodded in thanks, one corner of her mouth turned slightly upwards in concealed amusement at his gesture and walked in the room. L followed suit and shut the door behind him, and locked it, but shuddered at the memory of how easily Tsuki picked the hotel window locks from the inside and broke in from the outside, and wondered whether the Aka Sora had that kind of skill, knowing that this lock wouldn't stand a chance against that skill.

Without another word, she dumped her pack on the bed, and took his from him. She unzipped it, and got the green tree python out, and resisted the urge to grin seeing that he was alright, although he seemed very unnerved and a little annoyed.

Silently, she apologised to him and she knew that he would have to stay in the pillowcase tonight, since she didn't exactly have a spare tank for him in her back pocket. She made a mental note to buy one first thing tomorrow, and placed him back into the pillowcase, apologising silently again.

She placed him in the cupboard that was in the room, and inside one of the drawers. Surely it would be dark and warm enough for him, but she'd have to get a tank because those weren't the kind of conditions he was used to.

L was sitting on the only chair in the room, wondering if he could actually sleep or not. More than likely, this was going to be one of the rare times where he could sleep, because he was so shaken up and he still didn't know how to react to all of this yet. He sat their, absorbed in his own thoughts, even as Tsuki had a quick shower to wash the sweat and scent of blood of her.

He only snapped out of it when she came out of the bathroom, dressed in a simple black singlet and a pair of tights that he presumed were in her pack. She threw a pair of boxers to him that belonged to her, but would undoubtedly fit the slim man.

Gently, he picked them off his lap with his pointer finger and thumb and held them up in front of his face, wondering if she actually expected him to sleep in only that while laying in the same bed as a woman. He figured that it might be a bit inappropriate unless they were lovers. A faint embarrassed smile came across his face, just long enough for Tsuki to turn around and see it.

"What are you smiling about?" she asked flatly, wondering what the hell could make him smile after all that had happened tonight.

He composed himself quickly, not really wanting her to know what he was just thinking about. "It's nothing." he said quickly, and a little to casually to pull it off.

She didn't investigate further, since sleep was the only thing on her mind at the moment. Yesterday was scheduled as her sleep day, but obviously enough, she wouldn't have dared sleep with all this going on, and the only reason she was going to now was because she was so tired that she wouldn't be of any use investigating while being so fatigued.

Also, she could tell that L needed sleep as well. It didn't phase her that she would be sharing a bed with him. She had shared a bed with a male before. Kumo and her had been on a couple of missions were they had to be undercover and pretend to be lovers so they could keep an eye on someone. She had only had a lover once before, but these circumstances were vastly different.

Without thinking more about it, she crawled under the covers and got a small shiver down her spine when the cold sheets came into contact with her bare skin. Soon enough, they warmed up from her body heat and she resisted the urge to sigh and stretch out like a contented cat.

L got up from his seat a moment later, and walked into the bathroom. He had a quick shower, also to remove the scent of sweat and blood, and even though he still felt a little uncomfortable about the boxers issue, he pushed it aside knowing that sleep was probably a necessity at the moment and a good rest would do everyone a world of good.

The young man strolled out of the bathroom and over to the opposite side of the bed. It certainly did look comfortable and warm, and after he got in and laid down, he looked over to Tsuki, who already had her eyes closed and a barely there smile of comfort on her face. A small pleased smile came across his own face, glad to see that she was okay.

As they both drifted off to sleep, he murmured a few words which she barely heard.

"Thank you...Tsuki."

Whhoooaaa! Pretty heart-racing chapter, wasn't it?
I was on the edge of my seat just writing it! :P
Anyway, I really hope that you all enjoyed it, and I'd love for you to review, tell me what you think I could improve on, or if I'm doing pretty well at the moment :D
Don't be shy! I reply to every review I get!

Til next time!