Chapter 12
Kat was standing next to L, her green eyes turned out towards the windows. She was struggling a bit, to keep K from running out or lashing at the humans. The sterile environment, the needles, the smell of death and disease, it reminded her too much of the labs, the latter two more of the Moscow event.
She supposed this was the other reason Watari never wanted to take her to a hospital, other than to keep the fact that she was inhuman secret. She twirled a silver tress, one of many among the ebony locks.
As a part of her battled K, another was idly fiddling around with the Kira case and yet another was pondering frantically of ways to make amends with Lawliet. She was not very fond of the wedge that K had driven between them. Not only that, but she was not to keen to the fact that K had been influenced by her sorrowful emotions and tried to teach her a lesson by bashing their body. And yet K does not notice that we are one in the same, in a sense.
She flicked her eyes to the men as she saw them all looking at her, expectantly almost. "Yes?"
Soichiro looked at the younger men in the room first, after seeing that they were not going to divulge anything with her; he repeated the question, "Ko--"
"Outside I am Iida Kaori, Yagami-san." She said silently, turning her body to fully face them all.
"Kaori, Ryuuzaki was speaking about that mission you were on, when you did not give your all, Light wanted to know about it too."
She tilted her head, ear twitching from beneath the ribbon, Lawliet caught the little flutter of hair near the top of her head, noting she was thinking or annoyed.
"Yes, but that is not a question." She stated halfheartedly, truly bored with talking or anything.
"I believe he would like to know why you did not give your all, Kaori." Lawliet said, biting his thumb, aiming his wide eyes at her. Kat sighed resignedly, licking her lips before starting on her single statement.
"Truthfully speaking, I have no idea why K was acting so moronically, she usually is more apathetic and quick with the jobs, and the rest is confidential, the walls have ears." She spoke cryptically, turning around back to the window. Looking at the gathering clouds above her head, her eyes able to see the shadows and vivid colors better than any full human could hope to.
That was a subject, she once asked Lawliet about it, wondering what it was like to see things through a humans eyes when he was fourteen, visiting the orphanage.
Kat was sitting next him, just staring at the children running around, furrowing her brows when she saw one of the children fall. Lawliet caught this, turning to the bubbly little boy that had fallen a ways away.
Silent, it was, as they watched the smaller children stumble more, while the older ones did something idiotic.
It was a peaceful sunny day, and Kat had pulled Lawliet out to be with her under the shade f her favorite tree, tail swaying hypnotically.
"Lawliet, do humans not see where things are?" She asked, rubbing a peace of hair between her thumb and index finger.
He gave her a questioning look, "You know we do, Kat. Why do you ask?"
She shifted her weight to one of her feet, tilting her head. "I do not mean it like that, what I am trying to say is, details? Like, those dust motes floating around our heads?" She swirled her hand to make her point. "Or the little grains in the wood, the bright colors?" She pointed her hands towards a wooden bench approximately fifteen meters away.
Lawliet squinted at everything she showed him, trying to imagine what it was through her eyes but only got a vague image. He put his thumb to his lips pensively, "No, we cannot see that well. Tell me, are all of your senses that developed?"
Kat brushed her bangs out of her eyes, rolling back a bit to lean against the tree. "I suppose; my equilibrium is fine," She muttered.
Lawliet rolled his eyes uncharacteristically, "You can balance on rails, never fall and can jump from the bloody roof," He corrected.
She aimed her eyes at him, trying to pick up the emotion he was using. "My sight and smell is at an exceptional level…"
Once more, he righted her, "You see grains of wood, can see in the dark and sniff out the sweets in the kitchen all the way from our room."
For some odd reason, she felt her cheeks heat a bit. "And, all this is complacent with being part cat. I want to see you admonish that one!" She exclaimed the last part, narrowing her eyes mockingly.
Lawliet chuckled a bit at her antics, never missing a beat. "I was not admonishing you, Kat, you were simply demeaning yourself by saying you were less than you really are…" He trailed off as he saw her curious eyes looking at him, drinking in all of what he was saying.
Suddenly, he stood up, extending his hand towards her. "C'mon, lets go inside for some tea."
When they left, it was with Light and Lawliet chatting about the case again. Kat noted blandly that it was already night time. She proceeded to get into the car when Mr. Wammy pulled up, deciding that the men should get things over with. Not to mention that Yagami boy made her fur stand on end. Never a good sign.
She greeted the kind man, pulling her legs up to her chest as she sat, leaning her forehead against the cool of the window as a dull throb developed in it. She was over-thinking things, surely. If it was not about the Kira case it was about speculating every aspect of every human that came her way, wasting brain cells as she deemed them safe or not. But this was one of her basic instincts, she knew that all to well.
The car started moving, the humming of the engine coaxing her eyes shut. This was not good at all, the hospital setting was starting to bring back her anxiousness, and everything about this case was bringing back that girl that was mute with humans and furious by herself at herself.
Lawliet had his head turned towards her, noticing the less than happy girl sitting next to him. He floundered around in his head, trying to figure out if it was appropriate to try and wheedle some sort of emotion that was norm for the girl he had come to call "best friend."
Minutes passed, and Kat let out a small mew of discomfort. Muttering about foul thoughts giving her even more hurts and sores than usual. But it was too quiet for Lawliet to hear.
"Kat…I am sorry for…snapping at you…before…" He was struggling for words, looking from the back of her head (where the hair had fluttered and rose a bit, telling him her ears were as propped as could go) to his feet.
He was silent; trying to contemplate what might be going through her head.
"What does the word 'sorry mean…?" She asked weakly, feeling her chest constrict from the pressure in her head. (A/N: It happens, I know it has to me, at least)
"To be sorry means that I am apologizing, but I don't suppose you know that one either…" Kat shook her head to confirm his presumption. (She had used the words before, but that was what she assumed you said when something wrong was done) "It means, means, to try to make peace, to make amends, tell me if I am confusing you any more please," He had bowed his head from her silence, unable to tell if she was still K or Kat for once.
"If that is what it means, than I, too, am sorry for not being able to suppress her," She mumbled, backing her head away from the window dejectedly, liquid prickling at the corner of her eyes as the pain increased ten-fold.
Lawliet now saw her in full, the bags under her eyes were more prominent than usual, her eyes were turning red and glossy, her hair was in more of a disarray from running her through it one time too-much and her button nose was turning a pink color.
"What is wrong, Kokoro?" He asked; the anxiousness in his voice hidden away. Might this be a new side affect to being half-human half-cat?
"No, I just have some pain in my head; it is just what humans call a 'headache.' I will take a pain killer when I get home, Ryuuzaki." She mumbled, the little droplets of water beginning to cascade down her cheeks, creating little wet spots on the uniform she had picked for the day (the inverted versions of her black uniform).
All the way to the hotel, he kept his eyes surreptitiously on her; not that it really would matter, since her senses were clogged up and focused on relieving herself of the headache. He would have to tell Mr. Wammy of this. There was another reason that Kat was not aware of, that they refused to let her go to a hospital. For all of the years that they were working on cases out side of the orphanage, they had been keeping their eyes on her, making sure that the feline gene she had in her blood did not alter her to the point of an early grave. Mr. Wammy had informed him previously that the people that had been working on her (though he was very vague and cryptic about it) had determined that she might perish prematurely because she might have the lifespan of a cat or the human immune system might be trying to destroy the feline gene, or even vise-versa. It was very tiresome for them to do all of this but they kept on by encouraging themselves, saying that they would do this the rest of there lives if they could keep that quiet fragile girl in their lives for as long as they live, however selfish that might have sounded at the time.
-
Kat was lying on a couch in a melancholic mood, a wet towel on her head. She was not at all please with anything even remotely relating to water (though she could tolerate warm water, why? It was more comfortable, she supposed). They were all speaking about someone that was missing, that nice Naomi Misora human, the one that acted just as coolly to Kat as K did to everyone else not in her inner circle.
Her eyes started to flutter close when Watari told Lawliet to turn on the TV. Her ears perked up and she quietly made her way to Lawliet's side, holding the towel onto her head while looking at the TV with her neon green eyes, ears perked up and tail swaying. Maybe this would be new information or something of the sort.
"In other words, we are being held hostage by Kira and have no choice but to air these videos. At the same time, we feel that doing so is our professional duty." the anchor said. "I would like to emphasize once again that these tapes are not being broadcast as a hoax or for the purposes of sensationalism."
"Held hostage by Kira? What's going on here?" the task force members shouted, causing Kat to hiss slightly in pain.
"Four days ago, an envelope containing four videotapes arrived at this station, addressed to one of our directors. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, sent by Kira." The man continued. "The first tape announced the date and time of death for Seiichi and Seiji Machiba, who were arrested the other day."
"Exactly as predicted, these two men died yesterday at seven pm of heart attacks. Who besides Kira is capable of carrying out something like this? From this fact, we have concluded that the sender of these videos was none other then Kira." He announced.
"The envelope we received contained instructions from Kira telling us to air this, the second video, at exactly 5:59 pm today." the anchor said as the camera zoomed in on the video tape in his hands. "We have not viewed this video ourselves, but Kira's instructions state that it fortells yet another death and contains a message to people all over the world."
A woman took the tape from the man's hands and walked off screen.
"This has got to be another on of their' fake stories, right...?" Ukita asked.
"No way... not even Sakura would go this far..." Matsuda answered.
"the time is 5:59 pm. You are now going to see Kira's video." the anchor finished.
The screen changed to a white back ground with the word KIRA hand written in black ink across the center, it was the same gothic font that Lawliet always used(since Kat preffered this nice little cursive like one that resemble formal writing styles of the 1800s), but in order to know that was the font, this Kira would have needed to be in the Kanto region of Japan five days after the Kira killings started, and they would have had to of seen the broadcast that L had used to first challenge Kira. And Kat refused to think this was a fluke, it seemed too deliberate. However that might sound.
"I am Kira." a deep fake voice said, the sound quality was sad, the static incredibly loud to Kat's ears, she winced again, struggling to not cover them up even if they were now lying flat against her head. "If this video is aired at exactly 5:59 PM on April 18th... it is now 5:59 and 38, 39, 40 seconds..."
"Please switch channels to Taiyo TV. The news anchor, Mr. Kazuhiko Hibima, at precisely six PM." the Kira voice said. Underneath all of the noise, Kat could detect a female quality, something about the way the words were phrased, the dialect and pitch. She would pull up some computer programs later…
The Task force members were all in outrage, unbelieving towards the news.
"Change the channel!" L ordered.
A man lay face down on the desk between to frightened people who were calling over crew members to help with the body.
"Switch back to Sakura!" L told them. "Watari, bring another tv set here... no, two tv sets."
"Mr. Hibima has consistently referred to Kira as "evil" in his news reports. This was his punishment." the Kira voice explained. "But one demonstration alone does not serve as absolute proof. I will present you with another. My next target is a commentator who has also condemned me repeatedly. He is scheduled to be appearing live on the air at this time..."
"Ryuzaki..."
"Go to channel 24!" Lawliet commanded forcefully, chewing on his thumb hard.
Several people were gathered around a man's limp body on the channel.
"...They said Kira would be sending a message to people all over the world..." Lawliet began. "We have to make them stop this broadcast or something terrible is going to happen!"
"I'll get Sakura TV's phone number!" Matsuda shouted as he grabbed the phone.
"I trust you now believe that I really am Kira." The voice said.
Kat shook her head; she recognized the voice from somewhere, even if it was masked inaccurately. No one could reach any of the channels.
She looked at the frantic task force, and then her eyes landed on Lawliet, watching him loose his façade right before her eyes. She gave everyone one last glance before she quickly made her escape, jumping out a window.
"Humph... Dammit! Then I'm going over there to make then stop it myself!" Ukita called as he ran to the door.
"Ukita!" Matsuda shouted after him.
That was the last sentence she heard. The headache she had would have to take a back seat to her affairs. Being thankful that she had been lounging around in black pants, her black vest and pulled her wig and mask on.
Minutes after she left, Lawliet looked down, eyes wide when he did not see Kat where she should have been. "Where is Kokoro?!" Though that was what he was saying, he actually wanted to yell out "Where the bloody hell is she?!" but he would keep whatever tact he had left.
And then pandemonium broke out as Ukita was killed on live television. K had been wise to not go down, she was sure if this Kira saw her than they would kill her on the spot. And yes, she wasd positive this Kira was not the same, the killing signature was not the same, it was like switching L's personality with her's. It did not fit well at all.
TV stations anchors were popping up ever where and K was itching to have a go at anyone of them. As soon as a police bus broke through the glass doors of Sakura TV, Kat jumped down from her perch, letting the cameras catch her, she scanned the sky scraper's around her, eyes locking on to any person that was looking in her direction or in the general direction, ignoring the reporters speaking avidly about "Agent K" and calling her over for a quote.
Then she saw a glint in one of the windows, and a flash of blonde. She hissed foully under her breath at the reporters before dashing out of view at a speed humans would not see. She scaled the walls of the building quickly, reaching a large room with a telescope in it.
"Chikuso," She cursed, running back into an alley way, mind working millions of miles an hour to try and connect anyone. Their was a small amount of people in Japan with blonde hair that were female. Once she unscrambled the audio, she might be able to connect it to internet files or even if they were remotely popular to TV shows.