So here we are, another day, another chapter!
Sorry it's been so long since my last update, as usual things just pop up at random times in my life.
Also, I've had a bit of writer's block, but I think it's all good now :D
Without further ado, here's the chapter!
Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Tsugimi Ohba & Takeshi Obata, but the OC's are mine!
Chapter 12 – The Luminosity
Hetoshi and Ame were currently driving towards the outer part of town that the team had agreed on, and as they sat and waited for them to arrive in that area, Taiyou wondered if this plan would work. Usually he would get a feeling that it would go one way or the other while discussing the idea, but this time his subconscious instinct gained through years and years of experience couldn't decide.
It was the same with Tsuki. They had no other option but to take the first idea and run with it. Anything to stop more needless murders and crimes. They had to act as quick as possible too, because it was only a matter of time before Eclipse found out about Hetoshi's disappearance.
More than likely, there were a few Aka Sora at the birthday party, whether Hetoshi knew about them being there or not, or at the very least Eclipse might have someone watching the surveillance cameras, maybe he might even be watching them himself, making sure that everything went according, and trying to prevent such events like the one they were staging from occurring.
A few minutes of tense waiting later, Ame told them that he could start to see all the older, more traditional houses and asked if it was time to start the operation. Kumo confirmed their location and Taiyou gave the order for Hetoshi to use the emergency beeper.
"Pressing the beeper three times, in three...two...one." Hetoshi spoke seriously, counting down until things got really serious and everyone heard the tiny clicking and beeping sound coming from the small device thrice times before it went silent.
The sound of the car's revving engines and other cars on the road, the hum, beep and click of the computers, and all the other sounds of the night seemed to fade out into silence, as if they all fell into a half-asleep, half-awake dream state and only one thing could snap them out of it; the sound of Hetoshi's mobile phone ringing.
What was roughly ten seconds never seemed so long, and salvation seemed nigh when the musical tone of the mobile began to sound and everyone let out the breath they had all been unconsciously holding in anticipation.
The middle aged man, still dressed in a white suit, even though it was a bit dirtier than when he put it on several hours ago, answered the call and put the phone on loudspeaker, mostly because he needed the rest of the team to hear the conversation, and also to free his hands up for driving, since Ame was definitely making this seem as real as possible.
"...Is there a problem, Gin?" a blank, emotionless voice sounded through the phone's speaker, sounding a bit static at first, but then cleared up momentarily. There was nothing but silence in the background on the other end, and it made things seem so much more creepy.
"I'm being chased. Since it's dark, I can't see very clearly, but I think it's a former client who's been after me for ages. Can you direct me to somewhere safe?" Hetoshi said simply, genuinely sounding a bit flustered because of Ame's tailgating him and he was actually getting a bit nervous over it.
"...take the next right. Head down the road for approximately three kilometres and then turn right again. Follow that road until you see a warehouse on the right side of the road. Go there and use your mask. Page me again if you must." the man known as Eclipse hung up the phone and all went silent for a moment and everyone seemed to come out of their little trances simultaneously.
"Damn it!" Kumo exclaimed loudly, making Hetoshi jump, still being a bit nervous over Ame's tailing him so closely, and also just talking to Eclipse made his blood curdle slightly. "I couldn't narrow it down to any smaller than a few kilometres. What I got though, even though I've narrowed it down, makes it more difficult. It's an area about 45 minutes from our location and it's just full of large blocks of land with fancy, rich people houses on them."
"Which will make it almost impossible for us to do a sweep of the area without being detected because of all the security systems that will undoubtedly be set up. And we could get around most of them, but it would be silly to risk exposing the operation by trying to search the area." Taiyou finished Kumo's thought for him, and exhaled in what could almost be considered a sigh.
"Let's just keep an eye on the are and look out for any suspicious behaviour. Clearly Eclipse isn't at the warehouse, but in the mean time, we have to keep our minds on this warehouse for the moment. There might be something there that we can use." Tsuki sort of chastised them all, and kept her head down, looking at the computer monitor in front of her that was currently split and showing both Ame's car camera and Hetoshi's car camera on the bottom.
L noticed Tsuki had a very tense posture, and had seen her stiffen quite perceptibly and possibly even shake slightly when Eclipse first started to speak. Also, since he could see her face, even if it was mostly covered by her cloth mask, he could still see the far-off look in her slightly widened blue eyes, as if she had just realised something, but he doubted it. It was more than likely that she was just in shock about finally hearing the voice of their enemy.
Her enemy, who had directed contributed to the death of many innocent people, people who were simply doing their jobs and got killed for it. Not to mention Hoshi, who was still always on their minds and in their hearts.
"Hetoshi, what does he mean by 'use your mask'?" she asked, breaking the silence, still not looking up from her lap.
"Well, as I said before, we all wear masks when we have meetings to prevent revealing our identities, so I presume that there will be other Aka Sora members there. We all have to carry around our masks with us, wherever we go in case something like this happens, or a meeting is called out of the blue." he answered, knowing that the inside of his jacket pocket held the mask he was speaking about.
"Okay. When you get there, Ame will be a few minutes behind you, just going slowly. You'll have three minutes to get in there, figure out what's going on and let us know. Do not let us down...Hetoshi" Tsuki lifted her head up and narrowed her eyes at Hetoshi's half of the computer screen. "Ame slow up and let Hetoshi lose you."
Everyone went quiet and Ame slowed up a bit, but made it look like he was still trying to keep up with Hetoshi, and a few moments later, an intersection with a few cars going through it allowed the perfect timing for Hetoshi to quickly slip through and for Ame to get stuck waiting for a chance to go through and 'lose' Hetoshi.
Ame cruised along slowly after he was far enough away to have considered Hetoshi's trail gone cold and continued along the route that Eclipse had said to take. With Kumo's help, they timed it perfectly so Ame would be several minutes behind, but close enough to race to the warehouse if need be.
Hetoshi turned into the open gate at the warehouse and drove around the back where he would be out of sight from the road and parked. Everyone saw from the car camera that there was another car just a few metres away, and Hetoshi tried to see if there was anyone in it, but Tsuki told him not to get too close, and to just go inside the warehouse.
The man was scared, but determined and he made his way to the small side door which was open and he could see light filtering out from inside the large construction and he pulled out his mask and put it on while approaching the door.
Tsuki's blood stilled from the silence and anticipation and Hetoshi gave the metal door a quick knock just to alert the people inside of another presence. They both snapped their heads in his direction and their muscles tensed reflexively, but they relaxed after seeing the silver mask covering Hetoshi's face.
"I can only see two men. They're both wearing Aka Sora masks, but they aren't ones like mine. They're just painted grey. That means they're just low ranking members. They just do what their told." Hetoshi whispered as quietly as he could while still making it coherent.
"Gin. Eclipse told us you were coming. You are here to inspect the shipment?" one of them said, and turned towards Hetoshi, gave a small bow and the other did the same a second later.
"Go with it." L commented simply, assuming that Eclipse didn't let the two know that 'Gin' was being chased.
"Yes, I am." 'Gin' responded with an air of confidence that he didn't really feel at the moment.
"Well, your workshop gave us three boxes. One with the special kunai and the other two are just regular shuriken." the other man opened up all three boxes and showed his boss the collection of weapons and Hetoshi played the part of inspecting them and nodding when he deemed the acceptable.
"Ame. I'm sure you can handle these two on your own. Capture them as soon as you get there." Tsuki ordered quietly not wanting to distract Hetoshi if she could help it.
"You've never come to inspect them before. Why now, if I may ask, Gin." the first man asked, his voice sounding confused, but curious.
"It would usually be done before they leave my workshop, but I have been busy. Have you two been given this job permanently?" Hetoshi inquired, just trying to get any information they could for the team.
"Yes, sir. We have." they both answered in unison.
"Tell them you'll be inspecting again next week and figure out what time to get there." L spoke up for the first time in a long time, and caught everyone's attention momentarily before they looked back to their computer screens.
"I will also be inspecting the next one since I have other duties to attend to and I won't be able to do it until it gets here. What time exactly will you be bringing it here?" he looked between both men, waiting for an answer.
"We got here about half an hour ago, and we'll get here at the same time next week." the second one said with a single nod to his superior.
"I'm just pulling up now." Ame whispered and Hetoshi kept his composure and gave no sign of being anxious.
Ame parked a little down the road from the warehouse, underneath a tree where it was just dark enough for the car to be nearly impossible to see. He stealthily moved towards the warehouse, making sure to be as silent as possible, and to keep an ear out on the radio, just in case the two Aka Sora suspected something.
Hetoshi managed to keep the two distracted until just like a good Sora Ops agent should, Ame infiltrated the warehouse and incapacitated them with senbon before they even realised he was there. Those two certainly were only cannon fodder.
"Done. We'll be back as soon as we can."
"Good job. Make sure that they don't wake up until you get back." Taiyou reminded them, and listened as both men dragged the two Aka Sora to Ame's car, stripped them of their weapons, beepers and anything else they had on them, and drive off into the night...
They got back from the warehouse and the two Aka Sora were placed in two separate interrogation rooms. Ame had used a tranquillising senbon on both of them, and the team sat in waiting for them both to wake up. Within around 30 minutes, they started to stir, and started freaking out, not knowing where they were, or how they got there. In fact, neither of them remembered even leaving the warehouse.
Now, it was Tsuki's time to shine.
She made her way down to the interrogation rooms, and entered the first, startling the Aka Sora sitting in the seat with his hands tied behind his back. She strolled over, and removed his mask then as per usual, Tsuki sat down, and glared at the person over the other side of the table, gauging their reactions.
"Do you who I am?" she asked abruptly, making him flinch a little.
"N-no." he replied, becoming more unnerved as the woman just sat there, staring at him through the two eye-holes in her mask. Slowly, as he looked her over, she did become more and more familiar to him. His gaze fell on the white crescent moon on her mask, and it clicked with him. He did know who this woman was, and if he was right, he was in deep shit.
"Wait...you aren't...her...are you?" he asked in a whisper, absolutely stunned at the prospect of this woman being the one he'd heard so much about.
"Her? What do you mean by that?" Tsuki questioned, quite sure that he knew exactly who she was.
"The one we've been told about...the woman who is darker than shadow, who is quieter than silence, who is faster than time and stronger than the world...Tsuki." he answered with an awed, yet frightened voice.
Tsuki resisted the urge to smirk and chuckle at his words. She was actually rather fond of the description he gave. It was rather flattering, and she presumed that he heard it from Eclipse. An exaggeration, it most certainly was, but it was very amusing nonetheless.
"Did Eclipse tell you that?" she asked, allowing her voice to seem a little sardonic.
"It is you. H-how did you capture me?" he said, now being utterly shocked, and the fright in his voice had almost doubled.
"You didn't answer my question." Tsuki reminded him quietly, but firmly.
"Eclipse? I-I don't know what you mean. Is that a person?" he answered with a shaky voice. He was a terrible liar.
"There is no point in lying to me. Maybe Eclipse should have added to his little description that I can tell exactly what you are feeling at any given point in time with one glance. Now, tell me. How long have you been in the Aka Sora?"
"What is the Aka Sora? I really don't know what you mean."
Tsuki was having trouble keeping herself detained, but if this guy kept playing dumb, she would undoubtedly have to scare him into telling her what she wanted to know. In fact, she decided to do that anyway. A much easier approach than asking him over and over again. She smashed her fist down on the cold, metal table in front of her, scaring the hell out of the guy and even giving L a bit of a fright back in the office upstairs.
"I believe I said that there was no point in lying to me. We captured you because we have your boss, Gin. He is cooperating with us, because he knows that the Aka Sora do not stand a chance against the Sora Ops. Against me. You best do the same." Tsuki hissed at him, leaning over the table and glaring full strength at him.
"Now, I'll ask you again. How long have you been in the Aka Sora?" her voice low and filled with venom.
"I told you, I don't know what the Aka Sora is!" he exclaimed loudly, but it was such a terrible lie.
That was it. Tsuki was around the other side of the table, and her hand was tightly constricting the man's throat before he could even have had the time for his brain to register to blink, and fear filled his eyes while he desperately tried to continue breathing and struggle from her grasp, although it was futile. Her hand, small it may be, had a grip like steel.
"A month." he managed to wheeze out.
Her grip lessened considerably. "Much better. How did you join?"
"A masked man broke into my house and told me that my father had been killed because of the Sora Ops' incompetence and that I should want revenge and I accepted."
"What do you know of their plans, or goals?"
"I think that Eclipse wants the Sora Ops completely destroyed. You especially. Aside from that, I don't know much. I'm not very high up. All I do is transport weapons with the other guy."
"Do you have any idea of Eclipse's real identity?"
"No. No one knows. Not even Gin. Eclipse doesn't tell anyone anything unless he has to. I've only met him once before, after I accepted to join the Aka Sora. I was taken to this weird place with all traditional Japanese buildings and he thanked me for joining and told me a little about what the Aka Sora will do. That's all I know."
Tsuki removed her hand from around his neck, and was silent for a moment. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?" she asked rhetorically, not waiting for his answer, opened the door, and shut it behind her.
So far, they hadn't gotten much. She hadn't expected to get so much so soon, but she really just wanted these guys out of Eclipse's reach for the moment. The less Aka Sora around there were when the Sora Ops eventually made their final stand against them, the better. And Tsuki had a feeling that that time would come soon enough.
She opened the door to the second interrogation room and took off the Aka Sora member's mask before sitting on the table, just next to his seat. It was rather amusing to see the other one so thrown off after finding out who she was, so she decided to make things easier and tell him straight off. Luckily, he set her up perfectly to tell him who she was.
"Who are you?" he asked, sounding a little more confident that he looked, but she did commend him on his courageous glare.
"Who am I? I believe it's been said that I'm the one who is darker than shadow, who is quieter than silence, who is faster than time and stronger than the world. Something like that." she answered his question quietly and slowly, dragging it out and thoroughly enjoying the slow widening of his eyes as he recognised the description.
"Tsuki...But how?"
"We have Gin. He is cooperating with us because he knows that the Aka Sora will lose, and he's smart enough to be on the winning side. Now, if you answer my questions truthfully, this will be much easier."
Fortunately, he seemed to accept her words, and nodded slowly in agreement, reluctantly so, but she still got what she wanted. As a reward, she used a kunai to cut the bonds around his wrists, and he rubbed them unconsciously after he realised he was free.
"What do you want to know?" he asked knowing that there wasn't much point in being resistant when he was in a soundproofed room with the only person Eclipse seemed to fear and had said so himself that he wasn't absent of fear when mentioning her.
"How long have you been in the Aka Sora?"
"Um, a masked man broke into my house about a month ago, and I knew that if I didn't accept, he probably would have killed me, so I accepted."
"What did the masked man say?"
"He told me that my sister who had died a few years ago was killed because the Sora Ops didn't do their jobs properly and happily allowed the death of a human being, which was my sister, just to catch their man. I didn't really believe him at first, but I do know that my sister was kidnapped and found dead about 4 years ago, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. He said that I should want revenge."
"So you accepted on the premise of getting revenge?"
"No. I don't believe that killing as many people as I know the Aka Sora have is revenge. I know the man responsible for my sister's death is still alive, and I'd only want him dead, no one else. I'm sure that the police wouldn't just let my sister die to catch a criminal."
"You are correct. The Sora Ops prides themselves of being three steps ahead of every criminal we are trying to catch. There are no needless deaths in our operations. However, I am not sure if the Sora Ops covered that particular case. But anyway, what do you know of the Aka Sora's goals?"
"Not very much. We aren't told anything unless it involves us directly. The only thing I know is that what I do eventually links to people dying. I don't like that, but what choice do I have? They'd kill me if I tried to leave. There would be no hiding from Eclipse. He'd have me killed without a second thought. He knows that I'm not loyal to him. He has people that obey his every word. I don't know why he needed me."
"I believe that he plans to use you as nothing more than cannon fodder when the final stand is made. But don't worry, you'll be stuck here for a while." Tsuki got up from sitting on the table and walked around towards the door before she remembered what the other guy had said to her.
"One more thing...Where were you taken once you had accepted the offer to join?"
"I'm not sure where it was because I was blindfolded on the way there. I just remember the blindfold being taken off when I was standing in front of Eclipse. It was in this large room and it was a really traditional Japanese place. One of the shoji screens were open and I could see more traditional buildings like it. It must have been a huge place." he answered, his eyes looking down and to the right, recalling the memory first hand.
After a quick moment of contemplation, she nodded to him in thanks, shut the door and headed upstairs to the main office where everyone was discussing the information that they had gotten from the two men. L spoke to her first.
"Ah, Tsuki. Hetoshi has told us that he was also taken to this traditional Japanese building when he accepted the Aka Sora's offer to join them."
"Why did you not mention this before?" Tsuki asked Hetoshi harshly.
"I didn't think it was very relevant since I figured that he would never stay in the same place for very long." he answered, cowering back a little, not wanting to be the victim of Tsuki's wrath.
"You are probably right. But you should have told us anyway. Is there anything else you can think of, relevant or not?" she asked, only easing up her tone a little.
"Nothing off the top of my head."
"Well, you let me know if you think of something...Kumo, I presume you are already searching for nearby large traditional Japanese buildings?" she turned towards the computer screen nearest her, knowing Kumo's head was right behind it, as per usual.
"Yep. I haven't found much so far, but so far I'm looking in the area where we traced Eclipse's location to." he answered popping his head to the side of the screen for a moment to look at her while he was speaking to her.
"Okay. How long will it take?"
"A while. The area that I narrowed it down to is pretty big, and the system has to go slowly to check everything out properly, so it'll be a while before we get results." he shrugged in apology and disappeared behind the computer screen to continue with his search.
She closed her eyes, and sighed long and quietly. Her frustration levels were through the roof and she was sure that if they didn't get something soon, she was going to go insane. Taiyou could sense that his best agent was starting to lose her grip on the strangle-hold she had on her anger over all of this Aka Sora stuff and he had been noticed that everyone else was struggling a bit too.
"Alright everyone! That's enough for today. You all need some rest, so get out of here, and be back at 10.30AM sharp tomorrow...actually, today." he said loudly and forcefully, not really trying to give any the option to argue, but he knew that Tsuki would even though she'd probably end up falling asleep in her seat if she sat there long enough.
"Taiyou, we are getting to close now to take breaks to rest. You can all go, I'll stay and keep an eye on the search." she looked at the ceiling with her arms crossed and glared, as if cursing the heavens themselves.
"No. We are all going to get some rest. Kumo said the search will take a while, so it's better off that we get some rest, and come back when we are closer to 100%. We're no good to the case being dead tired and barely able to function. Just do what I say, Tsuki. For fuck's sake." Taiyou pleaded with her, and she continued glaring at the ceiling for a long moment before emitting a low, but quick growl of resignation.
"Fine. But I'll be here, in this office, in my seat at exactly 10.30AM in the morning." she grumbled and grabbed her motorbike helmet off her desk, and walked out of the office before anyone could say anything, so unfortunately, she missed out on L's message.
"Ah, before the rest of you go. I have prepared a secure location for us all to be in a daily basis." he paused to type on his laptop for a moment and then turn it around so everyone could see the picture of the large building currently on screen. "There are rooms to sleep in and facilities available for everyone."
"Whoa. That's insane! It's huge! Where is it?" Ame asked with awe at the image of the place that they would apparently be staying in from now on.
"About 10 minutes out of town. Should I inform Tsuki so she can go there?" L inquired, wondering whether it was worth the effort or not.
"Nah, I wouldn't bother. She'll probably just crack the shits. Just let her know at about 10AM tomorrow." Kumo suggested casually, knowing that there wasn't much point in trying to let her know now that she'd probably already be half-way home.
L was starting to get a bit worried about Tsuki. He had also noticed that she was starting to lose her grip and her anger was gradually starting to become more and more prominent of late. Even her blank stares were glinting with anger and stress nowadays. The marks in the large wooden dartboard on the office wall had doubled, and it looked like the bullseye couldn't even be used any more because it was worn away so bad.
She was starting to worry him. Her volatility always concerned him, but it was only recently that she was starting to get out of control. It was almost like she was a different person than the one he had met all those weeks ago.
The only problem was, is that this sudden onslaught of volatility and unpredictable behaviour from her only made her more interesting to him. He was still incredibly attracted to her, and he was kind of glad for Hetoshi's presence, because if he wasn't there then she wouldn't have to wear the Sora Ops mask, meaning that he would be able to see her stunning blue eyes even more prominently.
It seemed that no matter how she acted, how spontaneous, or scheduled she was, angry or calm, she still managed to enamour him, which in itself was a feat the young man had thought impossible, especially since he barely had any female interaction at all...like ever. It was odd enough that he had actually been...aroused by her appearance, but even more far-fetched that he occasionally found himself wondering if she ever thought about him in a romantic or intimate way.
At first, these thoughts had shocked him to no end, but after the slow progression of coming to terms with what he was thinking and feeling, he had gotten to the point where they didn't phase him enough for it to actually show externally, maybe aside from a slight dilation of his pupils which no one seemed to notice.
He was certain that Kumo knew what was going on inside his head, and he had almost asked the veteran Sora Ops agent about it, but the almost-conversation was interrupted by Taiyou coming back in the main office from a meeting with the ICPO. So, for now, he would just stay in the dark, until a more opportune moment arose.
While everyone else was packing up and getting ready to leave, L's cell phone began to ring. All eyes were on him as he pulled it out of his pocket, looked at the screen and mumbled 'Tsuki' to himself before flipping open the contraption and holding it a few centimetres away from his ear with only his thumb and pointer finger as if he didn't even want it anywhere near him.
"My house was burnt down...it was them."
Another cliffhanger!
Sorry, but it had to be done, and I didn't have anywhere else where I could cut the chapter off.
Anyway, I'll hopefully be able to have another chapter up asap!
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Til next time!