Untitled, as of Yet
Please, if you have an idea for a title, let me know. I'm terrible with those.
DISCLAIMER:
Ok, fine. I know the Death Note characters are not mine. However. Kari and her friends are so I'd be happy to lend them to you, but don't steal them. And I'm going to marry L. Just so you all know.
A thousand and one results popped up. I skimmed through most of them, clicking and making a note of ones that detailed his involvement with other cases. It seemed as though he'd been working cases for awhile. Though I was working in the Kira case, my goal had always been to find, and then if possible, help Kira so I had never given much thought to L before, but suddenly, he seemed quite interesting and he even seemed to be a likely lead to check out.
Not that I'd ever work with him, of course, but maybe, well, probably, he had information on Kira I'd never dreamed of. If I could get ahold of this L and either make a deal or interrogate him in some way, that would be ideal.
Judging by the earliest case involving his name, he'd been around about 10 years. Long enough for him to be, at the very youngest, in his early twenties, and not probably too much older than that, unless he started late in his detective career. He seemed quite brilliant though. He was famous, after all, for solving unsolvable cases. There didn't seem to be any pictures, besides the gothic letter L, but I didn't expect there to be any.
I scanned for a long time, biting my thumb, until someone mentioned going home. I looked down at my watch and cursed. It was 10:00 PM already. Mom wouldn't be too happy. Thank god it was a Friday and I didn't have to get up in the morning because there was no dance competition this weekend. Before everyone had left, Mi suggested an interesting idea.
"Why don't we start rounding up criminals? Ourselves?"
"You mean kill them?"
"No, just, I dunno. Tie them up. Leave them in a public place. For Kira."
"Like offerings?"
"Yeah."
"But, how would Kira even know in the first place about these guys? If we drug them, they'll only be unconscious for so long and none of us, 'cept maybe Jin, is strong enough to hold down more than one at a time."
Sakura spoke last and I stared at her.
"Sakura."
"What?"
"No. Sakura TV."
The others gasped in delight.
"Send a message-
"Like the second Kira-"
"It worked the first time-"
They were tripping over each other's words until I held up a hand to silence them all.
"Eina and Sukiyo, make a tape resembling that of the second Kira's. Jin, help them with the voice over and burn it to a thumb-drive from Inari, that way it can be traced less easily. Nanami and Mi, make sure there are no traces of DNA anywhere on the drive or the envelope in which it is sent. Maybe send it from Shibuya just in case. Sanyu, don't use too much on fancy stamps, maybe we'll use some of our own, unlickable stamps."
Everyone was nodding and plotting.
"Maybe I'll put a bug in the drive. I'm sure the drive will go straight to the police before it ever hits live TV and I might be able to locate L's hide out that way."
I looked at Ryn, impressed. Tomoyo spoke next
"Why don't we just have a sleep-over here tonight?"
Everyone was nodding and agreeing. I shook my head regretfully.
"You know how my mom is about sleep-overs."
They all knew well.
"But I'll come by bright and early ok? Bye!"
I walked briskly home and discovered I was quite tired. I fell asleep immediately, forgetting entirely about L and shinigami. But I did dream about shinigami that night, the one that I saw was talking to me about something that was small and black. In the dream the scene was vivid, I was talking to a girl and the shinigami from that night was there, but, when I awoke at 2:30AM, I couldn't remember anything beyond that description.
I yawned and stretched a little. For most people, my waking hours might seem strange, but I could make it on through my life with little naps; i didn't need to sleep for more than 3 or 4 hours at a time. I figured you sleep when you're dead and I conveniently suffered from insomnia.
So, I got up and browsed around my room for things needing to be done. I got myself a bowl of ice cream and some cookies and sat cross-legged on the floor, my stuff strewn in a circle around me. I thought carefully and made a list of things needing to get done and when they needed to be done by. I had some maps and a section of notes for history, a brochure for french, a couple of math problems, and a chemistry worksheet, all due monday. I had to clean up my room by noon today. I wanted to get a couple more chapters done in my novel this weekend, but that was optional. I had a few dances to review, also by monday. However, the cleaning of the room and making a list of potential criminals to apprehend placed top on my list.
I put on some music through my laptop and began tidying up a bit. I managed to eliminate three quarters of the mess by just stacking and filing the ream of papers carpeting my study. I figured that would be satisfactory for now and it was only 3:15. I re-seated myself within my circle and pulled up the internet. I wasn't sure what to search and for awhile I sat there staring at Google and chewing my thumb. I tried local criminals.
A few million sites popped up. I didn't figure I had much to lose, besides time, so I clicked the first one. Not what I was looking for. After an hour of fruitless search, I ran out of cookies and ideas. Plus, my ice cream had melted. So, I refreshed my snack store with potato chips and thought for a little while longer. By 5 I was fed up and paced.
Then I quickly sat down and tried 'rapists'. Then I tried 'Tokyo rapists'. In my mind, Kira was a punisher to all criminals, but, as a woman, I wanted to specialize. Besides, my cousin had been raped and it held a special, I dunno, meaning to me. I also tried 'Tokyo pedophiles' because that was the other cause I felt especially strong about. Between both searches, I actually got a list of promising people. The internet is a twisted thing indeed. I got names, faces, addresses, and potential and documented victims for all of them. I focused on the ones acquitted or not yet tried. I also tried to find people who were not men in peak condition for our starters. I phoned Mi around 6AM
"Hey, It's Kari, listen try developing something like chloroform, or if you can get your hands on that stuff it'd be great. Just see what Jin can get ok?"
He called me back 10 minutes later.
"Way ahead of you Kari. You've been looking up criminals all night huh?"
"Am I that predictable?"
I smiled wryly into the phone.
"Only to those who know you."
"Thanks."
"Well, Jin actually left around midnight last night and we're still waiting on him. He called about an hour ago. He seemed pretty excited. Said it was kinda expensive, but totally worth it."
"Awesome."
"He should be back in a few hours."
"Where did he even go?"
"He wouldn't tell us. He never tells any of us."
He paused for a second.
"'Cept for you that one time."
I blushed unintentionally. Mi and Jin were best friends and I thought Mi might have held a grudge about that time.
"He was only calling because he needed a ride and Sanyu and I are the only ones who drive and Sanyu's parents would have noticed if he took their car."
I grumbled. Mi laughed.
"yeah well. I'm gonna get some shuteye with everyone else. You should try to do the same and maybe get over here by noon ok?"
"yeah, see ya."
The phone clicked and I double checked everything again before snuggling myself up in my blankets. That time I'm not sure if I dreamed because I remembered absolutely nothing; a rare occurrence.
I woke up at 10:30 and by then my mom was up. I wrapped a robe around myself and sat down to a proper breakfast as she berated me for the missing cookies. It was unhealthy to be eating so late at night and for god's sake couldn't I just eat some fruit instead? I shrugged and resumed my lucky charms. After the cereal and some apples, I grabbed a lollypop and packed up my laptop, phones, lists, and threw on my usual outfit.
On school days, I was well known for my bizarre fashion sense and make up style. You might find me in fishnet shirt and matching tights with a short skirt and tee, or jeans with writing all over them and oversized shirts, ripped, re-sown, tattered, torn, brightly neon, and black were things common in my wardrobe. However, on the weekends and for missions, my outfit was often the same.
Sports bra, thin tank top of neutral color underneath a loose white shirt, spandex shorts underneath a pair of comfy, oversized navy sweats, and a baseball cap with sunglasses. That way, I'm literally prepared for almost any weather, it's appropriate for most buildings and I blend in well. Obviously, if I was on a specialized mission I would either send Sukiyo, have her come with me, or I would have Tomoyo disguise me a little better, but for my abilities, I thought I did reasonably well.
So, I popped into the house around 11:30 to find most everyone snoozing. I drew a deep breath to yell at them all for being such lazybones when I noticed Jin and Mi snickering in the corner. I turned and raised my eyebrows at them. They beckoned me over and spoke in loud whispers.
"Sorry Kari. I know you wanted to talk to us all but-"
"When I got back I just had to try out some of this stuff."
I stared at them, then glanced at my watch.
"When did you knock them out?"
"About a half hour ago."
"When will they wake up?"
"The guys should be up in an hour. The girl in maybe two or less."
I was very impressed and more than a little annoyed. This stuff must be very strong.
"So tell me about it."
Jin nodded eagerly and leaned forward.
"Boy did I get a good deal on this one Kari. You'd have been proud."
"I see."
"This stuff is new, I guess my guy just found a new inventor or something like cause he'd never mentioned this before. But it has been tested!"
He hastily interjected at my look.
"I paid about twice what I did last time for the tasers."
I did the sums in my head. That did amount to quite a tidy sum of money. We weren't left with much to spare, but we did babysit a lot and I had the secret stash if it came down to that, but I was saving that for a time when it was absolutely necessary. But if it really knocked them out for this long...
"What's the dosage? How do you administer it? And side effects?"
Now Mi took over. It was obvious that he had run multiple tests on the stuff already in his upstairs lab. We had given the basement to Ryn and Eina for their high tech nest, upstairs was a mad scientist's lab gone very wrong and everyone else had the run of the main floor. And each their own room for their specialty. It was actually a spacious house and I was surprised we'd been allowed to have it for this long.
"Well, from what Jin's guy told him, we gave about a third each of the recommended dosage to our friends here. However, the guy was very generous in mL per yen so we have more than enough left after our little experiment. We administer by soaking a cloth or tissue in the liquid and then holding it over the nose and mouth. The effects take place within seconds. The victim gets a bit woozy and susceptible to any ideas you choose to tell them."
He paused a moment to grin at Jin and I decided I did not want to know. I cleared my throat meaningfully and he sighed with a note of regret.
"Anyways, it can be administered through injection and that's just a more highly concentrated way to give it, but I hardly think we're going to have the time or the inclination to be stabbing every criminal we nab with a hypodermic."
"Well we could if it came to that."
Now he raised his eyebrows at me.
"Yes, but then we would be facilitating AIDS."
He had a point. I motioned for him to continue.
"That's pretty much it. It's not deadly, even in very potent injections. Well, not deadly in humans anyway. But it has the chemical to cause long term brain damage, but that's in extremely rare cases. When our dear friends wake up, they may or may not be dizzy, achy, stiff, tired, hyper, drowsy, hallucinating, auditory or visionary, suffering slight paralysis, unsure of where they are, slight amnesia, nausea, and, most likely, anger at myself and my partner in crime here."
The way he rattled off the effects made me slightly nauseated. I glared at him.
"So what you're telling me is that, when they finally all are awake, they'll be too busy trying to remember their name, throwing up, beating you guys up, or in a catatonic state?"
"That's some over exaggeration."
"Then you tell me."
"Well, the puking and the chasing are valid. The rest are only side effects, well mostly, with a full dosage. I said may."
I punched them smartly in the arms and pulled out my list. Even in my peeved state, I wasn't in such a rage to waste the potential three hours before everyone was conscious and ready to proceed.
"So here's the list I compiled last night and this morning."
They both looked it over. I explained about wanting to specialize in rapes and pedophiles and they both nodded their agreement. All that was left was to pick an initial target. As we were pouring over my list, searching for said target, a thought occurred to me.
"So what about that tape? The message to Kira?"
Mi grinned again, wider this time then I'd seen it all morning. That was worrisome. Jin shrugged.
"I'd left by the time that was in process."
Jin and I were both anxious and curious, (the anxious bit being on my part of course) to see this message to the police and kira. So as soon as it began I punched Mi again in the same spot.
"I hope you don't make a habit of this. That hurt!"
"Ugh!"
Jin was laughing and I'd paused the tape in disgust. Instead of Kira or L, in gothic lettering someone, probably Tomoyo by the looks of the calligraphy, had written Kari neatly.
"But don't you see? It's perfect!"
I glared at Mi.
"Come on, Kira, Kari. It's genius."
Hmmm... I unpaused the video. I had to admit, while a dumb joke, it would definitely puzzle the police, not to mention Kira himself. The only thing I had to be careful with was the fact that this group was not the only people who called me Kari. I'd have to ask my other friends at school to call me something else. Also, they had, unintentionally or not, placed all the blame on my little head in case we were ever found out.
"Dear Kira, I have a proposition for you."
The voice changer worked nicely, like always. The tape was of nice quality, not like Misa's second Kira tapes. I figured, as did my friends, that if you were going to do something, do it right. Especially Eina would have been nit-picky about the picture.