AN:3/ I own nothing and I make no money from writing this sort of stuff.
************(^w^)************
"Wake up, sunshine, hyuk!" Chimed Kaguya's living personal alarm clock.
"Urgh...it's four in the morning, Ryuk. What could you possibly want?" She blinked blearily at the huge otherworldly being, his face inches from her own. She didn't think she'd ever get used to his lack of respect for personal space.
"You taught me how to dance last night."
She yawned and stretched. "Yeah, so what?"
"Soooo, tit for tat, girl. Time for me to show you something I know." He swooped and dived as much as the hotel room's limited space would allow. She narrowed her eyes, he was too excited for this. What was he planning, the sneaky devil?
"Where are we going?" She asked suspiciously.
"You'll see!"
And that's how she ended up on the very top of the tallest building in the Chubu region without even a guardrail or a handhold for security. "Everyone's going to be mad that we're out and about, Ryuk." She reminded him.
"No, they're not. I asked." He practically crowed. "It was almost as if Nea..er..L was glad to have you out of the place. He literally shooed me out of the door. He even gave me a chocolate bar for you...right after he muttered something about sitting on babies."
She dubiously studied the candy bar. "He must not have read my medical file before I came here. I'm allergic to chocolate. Or he just didn't care."
Ryuk shrugged and held it out over the side of the building. "I wonder what would happen if this were to hit someone's head from this height?" And he let the bar go.
**************(^w^)*******************
Touta Matsuda was going to work with a happy smile on his face. Ryuzaki would have called him an idiot for looking so cheerful when on his way to investigate a murder, but L wasn't around anymore. He stopped just below the tallest building in the Chubu region, where he'd moved after the originial Kira's demise, and watched the rising sun. Without warning, something very hard cracked him over the head. "YEOW!" He shouted, rubbing the top of his skull. "Okay, what asshole threw that?" He glanced around, but could find no culprit.
He spotted the object that hit him lying on the ground."A...chocolate bar?" He said incredulously. He glanced upward. "R-ryuzaki-san? Was that you? Are you a ghost giving out free sweets?" He thought about this for a moment, then shook his head. "Matsuda, you're an idiot." He mumbled to himself, but smiled at the sky as he said it. How very fitting, only he wished it had been a strawberry. He was working on trimming down his waistline. Plus, it might not have hurt so much.
"I hope that didn't hit anyone." Kaguya peered as far over the edge as she dared.
"Who cares? You're gonna miss the best part!" He said excitedly as the sun barely peeked over the horizen. The sky was painted with gold, blue and peachy-pink still speckled with an occassional star. When the last twinkle had faded and the sun was fully risen, he glanced over at Kaguya. She was smiling, her arms wrapped around her knees and her chin tucked in. A moderate wind was blowing her hair around her face.
"Thanks for bringing me here, Ryuk." She smiled, truly smiled at him. There wasn't a hint of their usual teasing. Her eyes sparkled and the wind had made them a bit teary...or was it something else? A deeper emotion was barely hidden there and he couldn't understand what it might possibly be. He only knew that she was happy and that was somehow good enough.
"Time to go." He said after stealing a few minutes more. She grabbed onto his arms and he lifted her away.
Back at the hotel, there was really nothing for them to accomplish. So they passed the time with their usual banter and more decorating (and no more glue curiousity). Ryuk was treated to yet another dancing lesson after turning on the radio produced another song that Kaguya knew and could not resist gliding around to. Afterward, she told him about someone called Johnny Appleseed who, in American folklore, had gone up and down the entire American continent and planted apple trees. He listened, rapt, and fascinated by the animated way she was telling the tale. The way she talked with her hands and the smile that reached her eyes begged the question why this human girl stirred something inside.
He shouldn't care. Rules didn't matter to him, but he'd always been indifferent to the ones specifically applying to this sort of...strangeness because he'd thought they'd never apply. He could leave her today or tonight even and never look back, he believed. She was boring, he told himself, she didn't want to kill or play chess with people. And yet, there was something that forced him to stay.
Was it her laugh?
Or perhaps her creativity?
Maybe it was those little fairylights in her eyes that morning which had appeared as she watched the sunrise?
It might have been that he wanted to believe that she could be a worthy match for the new Kira. It might have been that he was selfish enough to care only about letting whoever this other shinigami was know who was the true master of creating chaos.
It might have been that once, but it wasn't now.
A part of him, he refused to admit that he had a heart or a soul, had come to care. She'd destroyed his neutrality and, in essence, a bit of him in the process. Yes, he was angry at her to a degree, but it wasn't her fault. Hell, she probably didn't have a clue what was going on in his head while she was hunched over doing this or that. Did she have any idea what he harbored? Impossible. He considered her silently, trying to figure her out. He wasn't the smartest god of death, but neither was he a complete idiot. So why did she stump him?
She'd never feel the same way. As far as he'd seen, humans were not very big on interspecies relationships. Was he a species, though? Or just a spirit? Philosophy, he groaned inwardly, it made his head hurt. She made his chest ache. Emotions were painful, that was why shinigami tended to avoid them. However, as he spent more time around this young human, Ryuk had begun to lose his neutral stance. He was getting involved and he couldn't figure out why.
Kaguya was sure he didn't know that she was watching him out of the corner of her eye. She pretended to read her books and get ahead on schoolwork, but really she was watching him now. He was staring at her, but surely he wouldn't see her peeking. His gaze was distant, as if he weren't really seeing her, and his mouth was pulled down in a tight frown. What was he thinking? She dearly wanted to know.
What did a shinigami think about, anyway? Death couldn't be a constant cause of contemplation. Was he plotting? She hoped so, she knew that she'd need all the help he was willing to offer or that she could bribe out of him.
Staring at him made her slip off on multiple tangents. Something about him distracted her. He wasn't handsome, she knew that. He was, well, scary-looking. Fearsome and strange. That was what made him interesting because she knew that he wasn't really too bad. Creepy, yes, but he was a lot less menacing than many humans she'd met. He'd even been kind to her in his own way.
She wondered what his wings felt like, but he would probably never let her touch them. They looked so soft, like ragged angels' wings. Despite the fascination, she was disgusted with herself. Imagine the implications, hell she could be insane or unstable for having these sorts of thoughts. But there was a kind of string, that was the best way she could describe it, that was pulling her towards him. A thread that had hooked in her chest while she wasn't paying attention and which was drawing her in like a fish.
She knew he'd intended to manipulate her. That wasn't exactly the best start to any kind of relationship, but how could she continue to blame him? Naturally, a shinigami would interfere with human lives. It was part of their existance as much as breathing and food were to humans. So far, he'd been a friend to her when she could have no contact outside the building, had participated with her in outrageous antics and so many other things the three weeks she'd known him. Perhaps this was being hypocritical since she had such a problem with his habit of treating death, such a final and heavy thing, so lightly.
The flutter in her chest disturbed and elated her.
All of a sudden, he was there in front of her. Those familiar eyes set against skin the color of death and those cold, glinting sharks' teeth. Only, nothing about him was cold. When she saw him, it was warmth that now came to mind.
"Ryuk?" She whispered. A curved claw grazed her chin while his other hand tapped out a beat on the desktop. Indescision and perspective should not control her things had to be given a chance. Yet...she could still pull away and end this. She had a feeling that nothing would be different from that point, that he would go on acting like himself and she would always have a sarcastic comment or sassy retort. The question was, could she live with the severed string? To never know what that string would lead her to, was this how the poet Frost had felt? Two paths diverged in a yellow wood and she..she desired to take the road less travelled.
He was more gentle and delicate when tracing her face than she would have thought possible. Unfair, she thought, she could not touch him back. He was transparent like a ghost and even now, in spite of this display of inhumanity, she could tell he wasn't really all that different from her. Whatever this was would probably inevitably crash and burn, but why shouldn't she enjoy a bit of contact?
Finally, he became comfortable enough to be solid and she stroked the raven black feathers of his wings. Princesses usually ask princes to kiss them or to save them from darkness and evil. Kaguya, in spite of or perhaps because of her name, was no princess and if Ryuk was Prince Charming then she'd eat her best leather corset. He was leading her into darkness rather than from it, but she was not afraid. Fear felt unnatural and foreign when he was near.
He did not kiss her so much as he barely brushed her lips. This was to be their secret, the light gesture seemed to say. She pressed forward, leaning into him. She needed the support. From now on, there would be no one but him.
Kaguya had a secret now. She was used to them, maybe, but not one that could hold her while she slept nor one that kept her smiling in spite of homesickness and fatigue.
Ryuk had his arms wrapped securely around her. Shinigamis shouldn't love humans and humans shouldn't love them back, but shit happens. And when it does, it usually hits the fan. Preparation was unnecessary, lines go unscripted and that's the best sort of secret when a lie can become a truth and lovers are friends even as they open the doors of oblivion together.
Kaguya was finally sent for after three days of waiting on edge. L was going to tell her how to succeed in this game. Although he said 'we', she knew that it would be her own neck that was being risked. Terrible, but true and she tried not to think about how she'd brought it upon herself. Now, though, as she trudged through the hallway leading to his room, she couldn't help reviewing her mistake over and over like a bad record.
Having Ryuk there made it somehow so much easier. "We must create a false trail, Miss Mori." L was working on a tiny structure made of Linkin Logs. "Take this little building right here. Sure it's small and it should be easy work for this pirate to pillage and burn." He swaggered a plastic pirate in the door of the little dwelling. "But this little building is only part of the lure. It belongs to an even greater force, like a city or country. And when you attack even a tiny portion of that city or country, retaliation is in order." He brought out a line of about a dozen British soldiers. "And the threat, however small or large, is demolished."
"Please speak plainly." She fiddled with a soldier nervously.
"Hmm." He noisily snacked on a bar of chocolate. "You are going to be an assailant who will create more cases for our new Kira to deal with." Kaguya glanced at Ryuk, who shrugged cluelessly. "How could I put it any plainer? Miss Mori, this new Kira appears to despise pain and suffering. You will be the creator of such things and your presence will be heightened and strengthened by the media. Then you will become the focus and very ideal of what this Angelic Mercy Kira is attempting to stomp out."
"But how-"
He held up a hand. "Leave it to us. We will arrange it." Watari leaned over and said something into L's ear. "Right then, your first torture victim will be 'found' in a few hours. So you will have to be seen leaving the scene of the crime." He hands her a blond wig and a plain blue gingham dress and a mask. "Watari will drop you off there. Hopefully, your acting ability is much more substantial than your intelligence."
She didn't mean to slap him. She really didn't. It just sort of..happened. Before she knew it, she'd gone and left a bright pink handprint on L's pale cheek. "Sorry!" She apologized almost immediately around Watari, who was now strongly ushering her towards the door. She wanted to cry. Kaguya'd never lashed out physically before and her hand stung with the blow while her mind stung with guilt.
Ryuk said nothing until they were outside. Without any sort of warning, he pushed her into a nearby alley and started kissing her senseless. She gasped. "Ryuk, gotta breathe!" He backed away for a second and she daubed at her bruised lips. "What was that about?"
"Dunno." The god of death smirked proudly. "Guess I just like your temper."
"Like?" She scoffed and pointed to a tiny splotch of blood on her upper lip. "That's not like, Ryuk. That's kinky." The word felt odd in her mouth, though she probably should have been used to it by now. Haunts that catered to her tastes were usually littered with BDSM fanatics and doms leading their subs on leashes. These same places sometimes offered Dora the Explorer napkins with their martinis. What a world.
He only laughed and pressed her harder against the brick. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, perhaps we should wait for a more opportune time for this sort of discussion."
"Miss Mori?" Watari called from just around the corner of the wall. "Where did you go? Miss Mori!"
"Hmm." Ryuk pressed his lips to her forehead. "Tonight, then."
She wanted to pull her hair out, but she agreed. "It's a date."
The Cheshire Cat would have sorely envied Ryuk's perverted grin. "I'll bring the apples."
Okay, so that was a bit funny, she thought as she climbed inside the limo. Still, Ryuk's cocky move in the alley had gotten her thinking. If shinigamis weren't allowed to have...ahem..those sorts of relationships with humans, but they did anyway...what would happen? She made a mental note to ask Ryuk about that later.
The policeman disguised as an ordinary guy loitered about without a care in the world. He was wearing kevlar and movie stunt blood packets under his loose-fitting T-shirt and jacket. The kevlar was only there to keep the blank shots in the revolver from burning him at such a close range. Kaguya was let out about a block from his location at a well-known shopping mall. This was to divert suspicion. Anyone dropped off at a mall in a limo of all things would be there to shop, right?
Well, she was here to kill someone. Not really, of course, the guy was going to be acting and a bunch of fake paramedics (and a few real ones let in on the part of the scheme) were far enough away in order to arrive at a reasonable time. She briskly walked right through the mall and out the other side, made a left, went through a crosswalk, and ended up only three feet away from her target. There were a handful people standing around, barely paying attention to the outside world. "Excuse me, could you tell me the time?" She asked politely while fiddling with a strand of hair on the right side of her head.
That was the cue.
"Uh, sure." He glanced at his watch. She whipped out the revolver and shot him three times square in the gut. Or, at least, the smoke and sparks made it look that way. She had to hand it to this guy, he was one hell of an actor. He was moaning and holding his 'wounds'. People were staring and pointing, men were running towards her. She ran as fast as she could, cursing L for forcing her into these uncomfortable flat shoes. "My sanity for a pair of combat boots." She growled as her feet ached from impact.
The wig, the dress, and the silicone mask were safely stowed inside a plastic bag. From her vantage point behind a dumpster, she could see the wave of fake EMTs work their acting magic. They were yelling about getting no response and had cleared the bystanders from the area immediately around the man. Then he was loaded up into an ambulance and sent on his way. Shocked innocents stood silently by, watching and glancing around. She knew that they were thinking she might come back.
And she would, but not to this place.
Three more times around Tokyo, she commited an act of 'murder'. The hardest act was when she had to cut off an actor's arm in public. Of course, it helped that the guy didn't have a left arm in the first place and the one she'd mangled was simply a life-like prosthetic. Her stomach was still flip-flopping over that. Immunity to gore was not a trait she had been graced with.
The media whirred with stories about the elusive and mysterious serial killer. She'd even gotten a nickname; Maime Jane. Her victims had all so far suffered horribly gruesome and painful deaths. This was something that Angelic Mercy Kira could not allow in his perfect painless new paradise. He would, hopefully, attempt some sort of retaliation.
All of this in one day was too much to handle and she finally collapsed on the bed in her room. It was still littered with debris from her customization spree, but she didn't have the heart to clean it up. A mess was a mess and messes can wait for a better day. She was nearly asleep when Ryuk, who could no longer contain himself, reminded her of her promise ealier that day.
"Fuck me." She grouchily mumbled into her pillow.
"But..what about the foreplay?" Ryuk asked angelicly, his devilish intentions glittered in his eyes. "And what about the apples? And the kinky stuff? I'd love to see apple juice running down-"
"HOLD IT!" She shouted, bolting upright. Her cheeks were bright red. Absolutely mortified, she glared at the shinigami. "You know that's not what I meant!"
He licked his lips. "Can't a guy dream?" That damned devil. "By the way," He added, apparently as an afterthought. "Apples aren't the only that I ea-" He got a face full of pillow for his come on.
"You disgusting perv!" She shrieked, but now she was laughing, too. "What in the hell am I going to do with you?" She shook with mirth, tears running out of her eyes as she clutched at her stomach.
He grabbed her chin and made her look at him. "Love me, feed me, never leave me."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly...you've got a real flair for the dramatic, don't you, love?" She gave him a peck on his puckish nose. "Now, on to the dreaded topic of kink and bondage..."
Nearly three hours later, Ryuk was persistantly pestering her to buy D-rings, leather belts, a riding crop and other such things. Her multiple steadfast refusals did little to dissuade the determined shinigami from his ultimate goal. She should have known that this would not end well as she huddled on her bed, dying of embarrassment. So help her God, if he ordered something online while he was 'browsing', she was going to kick him square in his gray-ass balls.
Well, regardless of what he did, she refused to be subject of film during an intimate moment. Shinigamis couldn't be seen on film, he'd informed her smartly. Perhaps, but it'd be obvious what was going on if ropes suddenly strapped her into the bed. Something about the famous detective watching her on his many television screens made her skin crawl unpleasently.
He was most likely watching right now. She had an uncharacteristic urge to show him the bottom of her foot. Really, though, she wouldn't. That would be horrible, especially after giving her protection and a place to stay and cover for her family. Slapping him had been more than enough. No, she'd just get this over as quickly and quietly as possible. "Hey, Ryuk."
"Yeah?" The blue glow of the computer screen gave his red eyes a purple tint.
"What's going to happen when all of this is over?" She knew that there was no way that L would allow her to keep the Death Note. He'd probably try to destroy it again, despite her warning. No blaming him for such a thing, either, because Kaguya was sure that she'd do the same thing in his place. The Death Note just wasn't safe in the hands of a human, any human at all. Ryuk's words came back to her and she realized that she couldn't even trust herself.
"Dunno." He answered cooly, though she could tell from the way that he was slightly twisting his arms that he was nervous. "I don't try to predict things. It's boring if you already know what's going to happen."
That may be, and yet she still wanted to know what the future held for her. Such longing was a typical human trait, but she felt as if something were amiss. Ryuk would have to leave her world if L destroyed the Death Note, she knew. He didn't belong here anyway and his form could go from deceptively solid to a virtual ghost. Although, it was definitely pointless to wonder about all of this. Kaguya was fine with being an instrument to cut down Angelic Mercy Kira. That had been the entire point of contacting L in the first place.
Would it be worth it?
Odds were that she'd lose Ryuk. That would hurt, maybe even ruin her. Unhealthy as it sounded, she was now beginning to depend on Ryuk for any semblance of sanity. How else could one run around pretending to kill and mangle people and still be sane? Sometimes, it was good to be able to just sit there and listen to him go on and on about video games (his current favorite was the Sega game Sonic Heros) or apples or even reminiscing on his previous adventures in the human world. It was mind-numbing.
"Ryuk, come here, please." He laid down on his belly above the comforter with his wings out. He knew she loved to pet them. She wrapped her arms around his neck and for a while they remained like that. "I think I may be falling for you." She whispered, half afraid of him hearing.
An amused rumble hummed in his throat. "You know, I've never been suicidal before I met you." She held him tighter, uncaring about L or anyone else who might be watching. No reason for her to care what they thought, they needed her, she didn't need them.
She smiled and played with his earring. "You know, Ryuk, two days from now will be my birthday."
"Right, humans celebrate that for some reason, don't they?"
She rolled her eyes at his sarcasm."Yeah, we do. Anyway, I'm going to ask Watari if I can go out." She placed a chaste little kiss near the base of his neck and he froze. If he were human, he would have bled out in a nosebleed. "It's been a long time since I've been out just to get out and see stuff. Relaxation is in order!"
"What do you have in mind?" He murmured absently.
"Oh, just a cafe. Perhaps a manga or rokuga. Maybe afterwards I'd like to go to the spa for some girl stuff. You probably wouldn't want to accompany me. That's why I'm bringing it up, to warn you." She said playfully. "Unless you wanna help me paint my nails?" She wiggled her fingers at him.
He raised an eyebrow. "Don't care where you're going, anything's better than being around these people. I had to spend time with them before. Absolute boredom! At least you'll give me apples." His eyes took on a deviant gleam. "And sex."
"No!" She pushed him off, laughing. "You silly perv! I fully intend to stay a virgin, thank you."
"That's what you think." He grinned, recapturing her and pinning her to the matress. "I've spent countless years under a metaphorical forced chastity belt imposed by a silly, paranoid monarch. It's about time I got some." He growled and she shivered.
"Don't count on it." She gasped. "I have a bit of self-respect, you know, plus, I can wait."
He rolled his eyes, but smiled. His sharky grin gleamed in the light coming in from the window beside the bed. "Spoil sport, but I love your stubbornness."
"It's not boring?" She teased.
"Nope," He leaned in until their noses touched. "Because it's exciting never knowing when you're going to give in to my sexual charms."
At this, she couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, uncontrollably. Her eyes watered and her ribs hurt. "Yes," She managed to speak around her giggles. "Because you're just a sexy beast." He started to do muscleman poses and she felt as if she were going to die from laughter. "I'm sorry, love, but you have the exact same sexual charm of a bull shark."
"Chomp!" He bit down lightly on her earlobe and her breath hitched.
"Careful, Ryuk, I don't want another piercing there." She warned breathlessly.
"But...I'm Jaws!" He told her. "Can't you hear the theme music? And shouldn't you be screaming? You're ruining the movie for everyone! What a terrible actress you are."
"Eeek." She flailed her arms around a little, giving a very wooden performance. "Somebody save me."
"I'll save you, beautiful maiden! Ryuk to the rescue!" He let go of her earlobe and began tickling her.
"H-hey!" She squirmed. "I thought you were the evil monster!"
"Maybe I am, girl." He resumed his tickle attack. "You can never know these days. Romantic interests are more antagonistic, much more monsterous."
"But you haven't confessed!" She protested. "You can't be a romantic interest until you've confessed properly."
Ryuk suddenly retreated and took to hovering dejectedly just over the bed."I can't. It's forbidden, but even if I tried, the words wouldn't come." Kaguya waited patiently while he morosely broke into a rant. "Rules! Arrrgh! I break 'em all the time, but that's the impossible one! Why. Won't. It. DIE?" If this were a cartoon, steam would have been shooting out of his nostrils.
"The Shinigami King is able to stop his subjects from saying certain things?" She fiddled with the bedcover, twisting it over and over in her hands nervously. To have that kind of power, so that silence is forced even over the distance of a world barrier...what must that be like? She imagined many things, most of them power-hungry tyrant kings thirsty for blood. "What does the Shinigami King look like?"
Ryuk smirked. "Well, now, you've asked the right shinigami, girl...because few other shinigami have seen the King and lived to tell the tale."
"No way, you're bluffing." She challanged playfully.
"No I'm not!" He retorted insistantly. "The Shinigami King can change his appearance, be anything or anyone. That's how he spies and knows everything going on in the Shinigami Realm. He's a tyrant, I guess, but he's the only semblance of organization we have in our world." He shrugged. "Although, he's never really scared me all that much, the opposite really. You should see him have a tantrum, damn that's hilarious..."
"What does he look like? Well, you know, what's the form that he uses the most?"
"His face is skeletal and he has four eyes. His body is round like a ticks, bony and suspended by chains. He has only four legs and his jaws are really mandibles with more fangs jutting out from between them. " He chuckled. "Personally, I think he looks like a gigantic squashed spider with-"
She made a scoffing noise. "Be serious, Ryuku."
"I am!"He persisted humorously to persue this avenue of discussion for the next fifteen minutes, ranting about humans and their tendancy to mistrust poor,innocent Shinigami. She listened, smiling at his antics. Only Ryuk.
Meanwhile, a pair of purple eyes were passing over a number of flat screens, absorbed in the images of each. Some were of the scenes where Ai Mori had committed her 'crimes'. Most likely, he thought as he chewed on a red colored pencil, the real ciminal would be drawn to these places. A shadow darted across his line of vision. "What is that?" He murmured thoughtfully, and he focused the camera in.
A small girl was down on her hands and knees tracing the place where the first victim of Maime Jane had fallen. He could not make out her face and the picture was already dark because of the hour. What was a child barely older than twelve years old doing on her own at night in the middle of the city? "Watari," He glanced behind him. The older man had fallen asleep hours ago on the couch. Near allowed himself a moment to smile, then quickly schooled his features to be blank. "Watari, please wake up. I am in need of your services." The elderly man's only response was a snore.
Near sighed. It seems he had no choice besides colaborating with Ai Mori. She would drive him to investigate what he had observed. Hopefully, the little girl would still be there when they reached their destination.
He knocked on her door. "Miss Mori?"
"Yes?" She opened the door and her jaw dropped to find him at her door. Ai recovered swiftly however and suddenly her expression was guarded. "How may I help you, L?" He wordlessly held up a pair of keys. "Oh no, I am not going to drive you around. I may be working with you, but I am not your servant. Especially since you just waltz down here after insulting me too many times to count and expect me to do you a favor without even a proper greeting." She glanced at her watch. "Do you even know what time it is?!"
"12:32 pm." He said in a clipped tone. "Watari is asleep. He is very tired."
Near knew this would affect her. He'd noticed her immediate affection for Watari and had planned to use this against her. Warring emotions played around on the older girl's face for a moment; annoyance, exhaustion, and finally acceptance. "Don't think that I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this because Watari needs rest. You overwork him." She grumbled as she stormed down the hallway. Ryuk followed her without sparing Near a glance.
The girl was gone when they got there, but Near brought out a flashlight and crawled around on the sidewalk where she'd been looking for clues. A small object caught his eye. He fished it from a muddy puddle and held it up to examine it. The thing turned out to be a pink hair clip in the shape of a bow with a little smiley face at the center.
Kaguya kept staring at the hair clip as if she'd seen a ghost. "What is wrong, Ai?" He asked calmly. "Would you like to share?"
She blushed deeply and shook her head fervently. "No, nothing. It's just..I..nevermind. Let's just go." She hurried back to the car. Near contemplated her suspicious actions in relation to this possible clue. She knew something and he'd have to convince her to tell him. He could threaten her, of course, but he felt that such a move was below him. Manipulation was his MO for a reason. He'd have to get her to trust him somehow.