notes/warnings
+ swearing. so much swearing. it's like I just wrote 'fuck' five thousand times and then added a few adjectives to shake things up.
Pandemonium
Rae finally manages to free itself from Ryuk's frustratingly strong clutches, and rushes back to the hall just in time to see Naomi fall. To see the name over her head disappear and, with it, a lifespan that indicates she should have had many decades remaining.
Naomi drops like a stone, dead before she even hits the ground. She does not contact L. She does not speak. She does nothing but die.
Rae feels some of the screaming panic in its mind subside.
You didn't…you defied the death note. You….how did you do that?
Rae shakes its head. It doesn't matter. Right now, it doesn't matter.
It has to get back to L. It has to be sure.
Takada stares at Naomi's lifeless form, her happiness draining swiftly to be replaced by unreserved, unswerving terror.
This can't be right.
She's supposed to summon L. She's supposed to stay alive until L enters the building. She's…
Maybe she's still alive! Takada thinks, wildly. Maybe she knows L really well, and this is some sort of elaborate signal.
She reaches out, touches Naomi face, checks her pulse, her eyes, the colour of her gums.
Nothing. No sign of life.
Dear god, she's dead. And her death alone cannot summon an unwitting, unarmed L. Surely, surely not. No, L will panic. L will come with soldiers. He'll be angry. And what's worse, he'll be ready. Takada can barely breathe.
Naomi Penber wasn't just supposed to keel over. The note cannot fail. Should not be able to fail.
Then...why?
This is a disaster.
Takada's brilliant, beautiful plan comes crumbling down around her. She needs L. She needs L, and she needs him dead. Naomi was supposed to bring him here, so Takada could kill him. It was supposed to be perfect. Naomi's ruined everything and how can someone ignore the writing in a fucking death note?
Dear god, where the hell is she supposed to go, now? She chose Light because saving him was suddenly easy. If she cannot join L, and she cannot kill L, then what can she do?
Takada snatches the death note from Naomi's unresisting hands, her own fingers trembling visibly.
"What have you done?" Grianna asks with interest, appearing out of nowhere like the infernal fucking idiot that she is. "Why did you kill her, my lady? Was she disloyal? I thought you liked her."
"Shut up," Takada yells. "Fuck's sake, just shut up!"
There are still taps on Naomi, somewhere. L had police at the ready. And Grianna has….Grianna's just given him a reason to be very, very angry.
"Go back to the others," she snaps. "Tell them L has officers on the move. Everyone has my permission to kill as many people as they need to. I will contact you later."
"Understood," Gree says, with a really strange smile.
Takada ignores her, and turns to look at Naomi one last time.
She feels the tiniest twinge of regret. Naomi was her friend.
No. Naomi was a liar.
"You won't find me, L," she says with certainty. "I'll find you, but you won't find me."
"What?" Raye sputters, and he feels as though his blood has turned to ice. "What did she say?"
No. No. It's a lie. It has to be a lie.
"That lady was talking like Naomi was dead," Mail points out, grimly, and Raye wants to fucking stab his heart out.
"I know what she said, shut up!"
There's no way. His beautiful wife.
There's no way.
Raye grabs his headphones with shaking fingers.
"L!" he snarls, ignoring Mail's curious expression. "L! What's happening? What's happening to my wife?"
Watari has access to both the audio and visual feeds, and he anticipates L's call with a heavy heart.
This is going to be hard. Things have been hard for L anyway, of late. What with the notebook, and the Shinigami, and the resurgence of his old enemy. And L himself has changed, too, perhaps for the worse. He's become more human, more prone to love and sadness and despair.
And grief.
Watari liked Naomi. She was talented and she was sensible. She'd have been a good match for L. She's married, of course. Was married. But perhaps, one day, things might have been different.
"Watari," L says, sounding childlike and scared despite the voice filter. "Watari, something's happened."
Oh no.
"Yes, L." Watari says, gently.
"Naomi isn't getting up. Still. And…Grianna said…Takada said..."
This is terrible. He hasn't heard L sound so lost in years.
You know this as well as I do.
"Naomi is dead, L," Watari says, frankly. "The heartbeat monitor I installed in her visual tap confirms that."
"She cannot be dead," L says blankly. "I promised her she would be fine."
"I am mobilising the police, as per your earlier instruction," Watari informs him. "L. I am sorry."
"That is fine," L says. "We will arrest Takada on site, with her supporters. It may be best, since Naomi cannot…since Naomi…cannot….cannot get up."
L's voice cracks on the second-to-last syllable.
"Raye Penber is screaming, Watari," he whimpers. "What do I do?"
"She is dead, L."
"She is not dead!"
"L."
"Watari," L pleads.
I raised you to be logical. I didn't raise you to be like this, Watari thinks, angrily. You are meant to be a hero. You can't…
Watari hesitates, turning his own internal monologue over and over inside his mind.
Yes, he raised L to be a hero. That is what L has to be, because that is all he's ever known. And even now, even now when he has managed to reach out to people - to make firm acquaintances and friends – he cannot rest. He cannot stop.
L has never had anything of his own. Not since he was six and a half years old, anyway. Not since Watari first met him, when he was filthy and exhausted and living out of a disused office in a regional police station in Nagoya.
Watari remembers. L didn't have any toys, even back then. Just a bed and a computer. Just a barely school-aged child helping the police solve crimes, because nobody knew where else to send him.
And Watari never offered him anything else. Watari never offered him childhood, never offered him a chance. He just made L into something the world needed.
Watari couldn't be that hero, so he…
What sort of a man does something like this?
In isolation, it sounds so cruel. But Watari was not wrong. The world needed L. The right thing to do is not always the same as the good thing to do. People who try to hard to be good lose sight of what is right.
Kira was proof of that.
This is a horrible time for introspection.
"Watari," L wails. "She was my friend."
"She is dead, L," Watari repeats. "You know she is dead."
"I," L breathes, his voice tiny and soft and heartbreaking. "I have to…yes, I know, of course, she…I have to. I have to go there. I have to. Just in case. You know."
L laughs, soft, short and hysterical. Then he stops. Snaps. Closes down. Watari's witnessed this before.
He knows how L breaks.
"Please stay where you are," Watari replies, and he almost never gives L orders. He's let L make all the decisions - take all the responsibility - since before L was even legal. "It is dangerous out there. We have no knowledge of where Takada has gone."
"She can't be," L mutters. "She must be. I have to…I ought to contact Raye."
A moment later, the screen flickers and dies, and the intercom goes silent.
L has cut off all communications with Watari, in a single second.
"No," Watari says, quietly. "No."
"Raye," L's voice says finally, finally, after what feels like hours of Raye yelling and gibbering into an unresponsive speaker. "Raye. I…I am sorry."
Raye feels sick, feels like the world has been pulled out from underneath him.
"What…what are you saying?" he rasps, barely able to speak.
Don't you tell me that, you bastard.
Don't you …don't you DARE!
After EVERYTHING.
"Faux-Kira must have had another piece of the note," L says, and he sounds completely calm, almost surreal. "I do not know why she did this. Please, stay where you are."
Takada had another piece of the note.
Takada had another piece of the note.
TAKADA HAD ANOTHER PIECE OF THE NOTE, AND L DOESN'T KNOW WHY SHE DID THIS?
"Naomi," Raye whispers.
His wife. His beautiful wife.
L disconnects completely, and a huge black hole unfolds in Raye's world, hollow and empty. Impossible. She was supposed to live.
Raye throws his head back, and it connects with the door with a crunch.
L has destroyed them. He has actually destroyed them. He got to keep Naomi working for him until the very end, and now, and now.
Raye cannot process this. This is huge. This is a bad dream, dear god, no, no no! They were going to leave together. They have to leave together. Raye wants to have a family, he wants to sleep curled around Naomi, he wants her tired smile and everything is broken.
Raye feels like he might be dead, too. He cannot feel his arms or legs. He can barely see what is right in front of him. He's stuck here, safe, in a car, while Takada just…
Takada, who is essentially the next Kira. Takada, who Naomi gave up everything to save. Takada, who is greedy and selfish and murderous bad EVIL BAD MURDERER.
Raye sees red, sees the train doors sliding closed again. Only this time, he doesn't have to take it lying down.
This isn't over. Takada probably thinks this is over. Takada's probably laughing at him. At them. Just like Light must have laughed, so many years ago. As if she's clever. As if she's a good person.
Raye feels the last frayed shards of sanity slip away from him. Like nothing else matters.
Nothing else matters.
"You haven't won, Takada," he hisses, at the dashboard, at the universe. "You'll pay. You'll pay for everything, I swear."
Raye has to go to Naomi. He has to kill Takada. He's not sure which one he needs the most right now. He reaches for the door handle, reaches for his revolver and finds that it is gone, vanished from his holster.
Someone chuckles, deep and sinister.
"Is that right?" Mail says, with a feral, awful smile. He loads Raye's gun with frightening speed and precision. "Then, let's go, Raye Penber. Let's go and get revenge."
Leah has just about pinpointed the exact location of L's daughter when someone kicks in the door. Lots of someones. Dressed in blue uniforms, filling the entire room, and…
Holy shit!
Police officers. Hundreds of them. With fucking firearms.
Someone starts screaming.
Leah thinks it might be her.
L feels his own feet thud against the pavement, over and over. Being barefoot has never slowed him down.
His mind is in pieces, broken and scattered and barely functioning. But that isn't important right now. L doesn't need to think, he only needs to react. And he feels strangely quiescent.
L can see Takada's headquarters, half a block away. He can be by Naomi's side within one minute. He knows the exact layout, after all.
He knows where she fell.
He runs, harder and faster. The bones in his feet jar rhythmically. Painfully. L isn't good at running, but that's okay. The longer he runs, the longer before he has to deal with all of this.
L arrives at number seventeen, Baker Street, and jumps the fence.
There are thirteen police cars parked haphazardly outside. The place will already be swarming with officers, intent on arresting everyone they can find.
It won't be enough. Takada has already fled.
L sent Naomi into this place. L should have come, in her place. He should have walked to Roper's house and sacrificed himself. Instead, he was selfish. He wanted life. He wanted time. He wanted Rae. He wanted to win.
He's not even sure what he's doing here, any more. What does he want, to see a dead body? He's seen plenty of those.
He's seen his own mother.
L pushes open the door to the top level of the building. It's abandoned, of course. Takada lived and worked entirely from the basement. There's just the one staircase – one entrance – and L presumes that the police officers have all joined the fray on the lower level.
He should have had more input into this. Some of them should be out, trawling the town for Kiyomi Takada. Some of them should be waiting up here, in case she comes back.
Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps nothing matters.
L feels as if he is very far away, watching all of this on a screen, someone else's problem, someone else's life. As if Naomi's death cannot possibly be true.
As an afterthought, he realises he is wearing the mask Wedy made for him, though he does not recall putting it on.
He doubts all the supporters will be arrested, yet. He could still be killed. There is no guarantee that others do not have fragments of the note.
Naomi died in the hall.
Naomi is dead. L doesn't feel anything. If he can get to her…if he can just see.
What will that prove?
"L!" Rae exclaims, from right behind him. "Fuck, you're all right! Wait, where are you going?"
"I have to see Naomi," L says, softly. He cares for Rae, but he can't care right now. If he feels anything at all, then the floodgates will burst and he'll destroy himself.
He can hold that off, for a little while. He can live in the moment.
"No!" Rae says, harshly, and drags him away from the stairs. "She's dead, L. There is nothing you can do. Don't go down there."
"You've confirmed it?" L asks blankly. "Oh."
Rae seems to be excessively distressed, considering that it never particularly liked Naomi.
"Listen, Takada's escaped with the notebook. Last I saw her, she was heading southeast of here. You have to get the police after her. She won't be on foot for long."
L stares at Rae, his eye wide with spontaneous revelation.
"Of course," he breathes.
Takada. He has to follow Takada, because Takada just failed her own test. She will be transported back to hell soon, presumably.
The god…the god of hell may come for her.
"Where exactly did you see her?" L enquires.
"Gretnog Street," Rae replies. "Hurry up and make the call, idiot."
L can't focus on more than one thing at once. He needs to find the hell god. If…if he gets Mello back, then losing Naomi might be…
Losing Naomi might be…
Rae confirmed it. Rae saw her die. But…can he plead with the hell god? Can he get Naomi back, too? Can the hell-god reverse death, as well as control hell?
Probably not.
Regardless, L needs to get that notebook off of Takada. He is the only person he can trust with it.
"Excellent," L murmurs, turns, and starts running in the opposite direction.
He can hear Rae yelling at him – screaming, even - but right now, he cannot care.
Kiyomi Takada is exhausted, winded, struggling for breath, but she can't stop.
She won't stop.
L and the police will be looking for her. Looking for the death note. But as long as she has the note, she can win. She can find Light. She can defeat Jason. She has the Shinigami eyes. She can relocate and start again.
Stupid, stupid fucking Light. She's done all this for him, and where is he? He was always so suave and in-control. How did he even wind up with a fuckhead like Jason?
Takada is finally forced to stop from sheer lack of oxygen. She takes momentary cover behind a dilapidated amenities block, her lungs burning and her mind racing. If it comes to an out-and-out brawl, what can she do? L will have his face hidden, and so will the others. If they know he is L, she can use them like Naomi. But L will have thought of that.
All right. Where can she hide a piece of the note, then? She can use it later, after she's been arrested. No situation is too dire, as long as she has the note.
But where? She cannot hide it in her bra again, they'll be expecting that. Her underwear? Up her nose? In her hair? Is there anywhere they won't check?
It doesn't matter. They suspect her of being Kira, they'll keep her absolutely restrained.
"Damnit," Takada curses out loud.
How did Light ever manage to beat this man? He has everyone on his side.
"Hey, toots," someone says loudly, next to her ear. "You okay?"
Takada jerks, fear and adrenaline coursing through her veins, but it's Ryuk, it's only Ryuk.
Jesus fuck, can't you find someone else to annoy? Takada thinks vehemently.
"I need your help, Ryuk," she says out loud, trying to sound sweet and appealing. "You don't want them to win, do you? That wouldn't be fun. I know you don't like Big Jason any more than I do."
If Ryuk helps her, she'll be fine. L might have police and weapons and surveillance and underlings and genius, but she has a Shinigami.
"Eh, I'm not really bothered," Ryuk says, with a shrug. "I've always been pretty impartial to the plight of humans, sorry."
"Nonono," Takada says quickly. "Come on, Ryuk. We have to save your master. Is this because I doubted him? I never doubted him. This was all part of my plan to get to L."
That's right. She is loyal, still. Where is Mikami? Where is Misa? They might be too selfish to help their god, but she isn't. Naomi tricked her. Naomi tried to change her. But in the end, she still chose Light.
So she's loyal. She and Light will be together, and they will rule the world. There is no other possible outcome.
"Well, I was pretty impartial to Light, too," Ryuk admits. "I mean, I did kill him, in the end. I really don't care what you do now, but I'm not going to help you, either."
Godammit, you useless useless USELESS creature!
"Just tell me if they're coming," Takada snaps. "Tell me what L is doing right now. That's all I need to know."
"You know, I didn't even look," Ryuk says nonchalantly. "I just followed you out here blindly. Hey, I guess that does make me kind of loyal, right?"
"Come on," Takada says desperately, tugging at her hair. "I'll give you apples. Lots of apples! Every day!"
Unexpectedly, Ryuk's expression changes. It becomes cold and hard and flint-like, completely out of place on his painted, eternally-smiling face.
Kiyomi Takada takes a small, involuntary step back. She's never seen her Shinigami like this before.
"I don't like people," Ryuk says, slowly and deliberately, "who lie about apples."
Goddamit. There's no reasoning with him.
"Fine," Takada growls.
She's on her own.
Rae trails L for a few, pointless minutes, but the stubborn, ignorant fool refuses to listen to any sort of reason. Even when Rae screams reason really, really loudly. Even when the reason is about how L is going to fucking die you can't fucking die get back here leave this to someone else FUCKING DAMNIT.
He's so important, when did he become so important? It's fucking L. Rae just needs him to write in the note, that's all. Write in the note, and like Rae forever.
Yes. That would be nice.
But L is acting like he can't even see, like nothing matters. His feet are already starting to bleed, covered in tiny cuts from running on bitumen.
He's become unresponsive and cold, Rae realises.
And…I can't stop him.
"You have to live, you….you wanker!" Rae bellows, and L doesn't even shrug.
This is so fucking stupid, this isn't even fair. Rae has nothing to work with, and that never used to happen, but now…
Think, think, think. I am brilliant. I can do this.
L is going to Takada. Takada still has the note. She won't be able to see his name unless he takes off the mask, but she probably has a gun, and she's still TAKADA, she won't…
She's still Takada.
She's Takada.
Of course. Rae does have something to work with. Or rather, someone.
The Shinigami pirouettes neatly on the spot, and barrels back towards Baker Street, as fast as its disabled wings can carry it.
And L doesn't even look around, which is really fucking annoying.
You're supposed to notice me!
Mail drives the car right through the fucking wall, into the centre of the building. Raye doesn't care. He fumbles to get out as fast as humanly possible, a pistol clutched in each hand. He doesn't need long-range weapons for this. And Mail still has the revolver.
The building is disgusting, filthy, cobweb-riddled and broken. Sunlight peeks through the beams in several places. There is mould on the windowsills. There are cockroaches running around the floor.
This place is a hellhole. Naomi shouldn't have died here, all on her own. All on her fucking own.
"This is the entrance," Mail says, pointing at the only stairwell. "The base is on the lower level."
As Raye watches, two police officers come staggering up the stairs. One bleeding profusely. One nursing the other.
"You shouldn't be here," the uninjured one calls. "This is a dangerous place, gentlemen. I'm going to have to ask you both to leave."
"We work for L," Raye grits, his voice filled with hatred and loss.
Mail flashes some sort of official identification at them. Raye isn't sure what it says, and he doesn't care. The officers leave without bothering them. Down below, there's a brawl going on. Gunshot and pandemonium and rage.
If Naomi is still alive, then she'll be getting hurt.
If Naomi is still.
If.
But.
"Come on," Raye says hoarsely. "Let's get down there."
He needs to know. He needs to see her. He needs to be there. Fuck Takada. Fuck everything.
They were supposed to die together. Or he was supposed to die first. He can't.
He can't.
"Raye," a familiar voice says, sharply. "Mail. Wait."
"Where have you been, Shinigami?" Mail asks, and he sounds almost polite. As if this is nothing.
Raye wants to punch one of them. He wants to bash his own head against the wall and never stop.
"Yes, where have you been?" he howls. "Where the fuck were you, Shinigami, when she was. When she was. What use are you?"
He hates this thing. He hates it for existing and for belonging to L and for everything else it's ever done. He hates Mail. He hates this world, this universe, and everyone who isn't Naomi. Everyone who let her die. Everyone.
Rae ignores him. Of course.
"Takada went this way," it says pointedly, gesturing in some other direction.
"Oh, you knew too?" Mail asks savagely. "Everyone knew except me, huh?"
"What did you expect, crazy?"
Mail smiles unpleasantly and inclines his head.
"Lead the way, Shinigami. We'll follow you."
"I won't," Raye screams, because they don't even fucking care. "I don't care about her! I'm…I'm going to see my wife. My wife."
Raye doesn't wait for a response. He turns and descends the stairs, three at a time, because he has to be near her, he has to be with her.
One last time.
"See you on the flip side," Mail calls.
This is awful.
This is the worst thing she's ever, ever done.
She's not like this. She's not a demon. She's not a monster. She's not even an ordinary Shinigami. And she certainly isn't Light.
She doesn't get people killed.
Naomi died long before her lifespan expired. And Jas had to let her die, because by that point, there was no other way to judge Takada.
What's done is done.
Even she cannot undo the past. And now…now Ryuk knows she is fallible. When did she become fallible? What happened?
Jas holds up her hands and stares at them morosely. She's so powerful. She's too powerful. Great power spawns great evil.
Where will she go, now that she has broken her own rules? What will she become? Unlawful and unguarded, the great judge of humanity. She could bend the world to her own will. She could crush everything. She could take Mihael, and he'd never know. She could be great. She could be happy.
But L would be so disappointed in her.
Jas pushes her fringe out of her face, and gets to her feet. She feels weaker, now, than ever before, but she can have anything she needs, as long as she has the note. The note is a part of her. It chose her, so long ago.
And now, she must decide what to do.
But not right now.
Jas waves one hand vaguely, and a fully-formed ambulance springs into existence beside her.
Right now, she has somewhere to be.
L finds Takada standing in an alleyway, barely a kilometer away from her own base. L can recognise that she's put some thought into her position. It's a two-way alley, so she has an exit. And it's predictable that someone moderately clever would attempt to outsmart him by hiding close to the place they're supposed to be running away from.
L ordinarily prides himself on being slightly smarter than people expect, but right now, that doesn't matter.
He doesn't really care whether he lives or dies, today. He just wants to meet the hell-god. That's all. And if he's misjudged, if killing Naomi wasn't Takada's chance at freedom, if Takada is going to go on and live long enough to kill him, well.
Maybe he deserves to die.
L feels the bile rise up in his throat, feels the insanity creep up around the corners of his brain, and he forces it all away. Not now. Not right now. He needs to be numb.
Takada sees him almost immediately. She has a tiny handgun in one perfectly-manicured fist, and the notebook in the other. Her hair is a mess and her makeup is smeared, but she's quite pretty, all the same.
L wonders vaguely whether Light ever saw that in her. Whether Light ever had emotions for anyone at all, or whether he was always just an empty shell. An empty, lying shell that constantly damaged and destroyed the people around it.
"Come any closer, old man, and I'll shoot you," Takada declares, even though L hasn't taken so much as a step forward.
"I understand," he says simply. "But what are you going to do?"
Takada scowls at him.
"Since you are wearing a mask, I presume you either work for the police force, or for L," she states, with no small amount of disgust. "Which means that you know who I am. What are you going to do?"
L's eye drifts between Takada's face and the muzzle of her gun. There's no one else here. No movement, no inexplicable presence, no other people. No sign of a Shinigami. No sign of anything.
"Get shot, I suppose," L replies. "You seem to have no function other than to kill, Kiyomi Takada."
"Shut up," she barks. "I'm doing the right thing. If you had half a brain you'd join me."
"Mindless slaughter of thousands of humans based on the possibility that they might be criminals isn't really my thing," L tells her.
What the fuck am I doing?
It doesn't matter. This is the end. He's gotten Naomi killed, he can't live with himself, anyway.
"Idiot," Takada snarls. "You're just another brainwashed sheep. You're stupid. You're not even carrying any weapons."
"Am I not?" L asks, pleasantly.
He isn't. He hasn't come here to fight her. He's just come here to observe.
Takada rolls her eyes.
"Take off the mask," she commands.
L tilts his head.
"I beg your pard-"
"Take it off, or I'll shoot you!" she yells.
Yelling will attract attention, won't it? When will this end? How does it end?
What form has the god of hell?
"Then, I would choose death, rather than being controlled by you," L informs her. "I know what you can do with my name, Miss Takada."
She can't possibly know that he has exactly the same weapon as she, right here under his shirt.
It doesn't matter. He won't use it. He's actually kind of convinced that he's going to die, right here, right now.
A well-aimed bullet means a fast death. There are certainly worse ways to go. At least this time he won't spend his final moments in the arms of the most evil man in the world.
"Fine," Takada tells him. "You can be a warning to all your colleagues. Do not mess with Kira."
"You could just run away," L suggests. "You don't have to kill, you know. We offered to help you. We…we tried."
No. Not yet. Too soon. Hold it in.
Takada's face contorts into an insane smile.
"So, you do work for L. Lovely. This can be two more nails in his coffin, then."
He doesn't want to feel. It's going to be so bad when he starts feeling again. He's going to wish he were dead, anyway. And he's eighty-five percent certain he's the one who Takada needs to kill.
L checks the street outside the alley, where Takada cannot see. Two police cars pull silently into view.
Witnesses.
Why are they here? No one knows I'm here. No one knows Takada is here, except Rae.
"I'd love to stay here and argue with you, but I have places to go," Takada lies.
She points the gun right at his head, between his good eye and his dead eye. It will only take one shot, then. Good. L doesn't really want to die the way Mail died in the first world.
Someone else is on the road, not in uniform. Running towards him. No, that isn't right. Running away from the police. Grianna Jones. Nobody is going to get to them in time, though.
If I die, will I get to see the god of hell?
No, that's ridiculous, I didn't see him last time I died.
Unless it happened, and then my memory was altered.
L does not move. One of the police officers shouts something and points in his general direction. They won't get to him in time, but they'll be close enough to bear witness. They'll have Kiyomi Takada on a plate. First-degree murder.
He hopes they throw away the key.
"L, what the fuck are you doing?" Rae says, materialising beside him.
And L jolts, overwhelmed with just seeing his Shinigami again. He feels like he's been pushed off a building, tumbling and terrified.
I don't want to die! I want to be with you!
Takada gets her finger on the trigger before L can react, before L can do anything, and the sound of gunshot is deafening, drowning out everything else.
tbc
a/n
+ I know I abuse the 'cliffhanger ending' trope. I'm working on it, I swear.
+ estimated time of next update is probably seven to ten days. presuming my 'flu doesn't relapse again.
+ thank you for reading.