Good morning readers! I know I left you with a cliffy last time so I hope this makes up for it ;). Enjoy!
"Violet wake up." I jerked awake and blinked around at my dark room, I had no idea what time it was or what I had been doing when I had fallen asleep but from the feel of my face I could tell that it had been on my keyboard.
"Crap," I muttered, using my dark monitor as a mirror and trying to massage all the red, square dents out of my face. My elbow nudged the mouse and the computer blinked white and blue, displaying the word document I had been typing. To my dismay I had about a million pages of the letter "L", I shivered and rubbed my arms, remembering what I had been doing before I had fallen asleep.
Due to some pretty serious red tape, the Kira investigation was still mostly closed and my pathetic hacking skills could only get me so far. The only thing I knew was that Kira had been Light Yagami, son of Police Chief Soichiro Yagami lead detective on the Kira case, and had begun killing criminals by mysterious means when he was around my age. The best and most famous detective in the world, simply known as L, had begun investigating Light and was subsequently killed by him. Kira had finally been stopped by a boy named Near who by my calculation was now about twenty-four. Not much to go on but I guessed it was better than nothing.
I looked at Sid who was standing nervously near my open window, it was then I realized he was the only Shinigami in the room. I frowned at him, "So did you find that Ryuk guy or what?"
He pointed to my bed, "I found him."
Looking around again I still didn't see anyone, "Where is he?"
"You can't see him; you have to touch his Death Note."
"Oh, yeah, right. I forgot. So where is he?" Sid pointed to my bed again and I obediently turned in that direction. "Hi, thanks for coming. Can I touch your Death Note so we can speed things up?" Sid cocked his head.
"No. He wants to know if you have any apples."
"What? And why not?"
"Apples, do you have any?"
"Yeah, in the kitchen, but why can't I touch his Death Note? And what do apples have to do with anything?" My bedroom door opened by itself as I watched; I turned to Sid, "Why won't he let me touch his Death Note?"
Sid shrugged, "He says it's more fun if you don't know where he is." Four big red apples floated into my room and one by one disappeared, some in sections and some whole. "Well that was odd," I said to no one, "So about the Death Note…" Sid grabbed my arm and jerked me forward almost out of my chair, "Ow, hey…Oh-"
Before me materialized what could only be another Shinigami. He was huge, over six feet, although his posture was stooped, allowing his long arms to reach down to his bent knees. Dressed all in black, with his light blue skin and spiky hair in a slightly darker shade of blue, he was intimidating, made all the more so by his bulging yellow eyes which contained red pupils. His wide, clown like mouth with blue lips stretched into a smile which showed several pointed teeth. For the first time I noticed that my hand was still stretched towards the large black Death Note hanging from a chain at his left hip, I snatched my hand back.
"Damn it Sidho, why'd you do that?" He said in a raspy voice, my Shinigami shrugged.
"Well…now that that's taken care of," I continued to look up at the towering Shinigami from my seated position, "can you tell me about Light Yagami?" Ryuk let out a raspy chuckle that sounded a lot like the crunching of gravel, his dangling heart earring caught the light from my computer and shone eerily.
"Light Yagami, I haven't heard that name in awhile, he was interesting. What do you want to know human?"
"Everything." He chuckled again, seeming amused at my expense.
"Why?" I turned back to my computer and minimized word, the paused interview popped up on screen showing the obscured man and the interviewer.
"He knows what I'm doing and he keeps comparing me to Kira, I want to know everything about Kira so that I don't make the same mistakes." This time when Ryuk laughed it was long and loud, I shared a look with Sid who stood behind Ryuk. I was beginning to share Sid's feelings for the new God of Death.
"You aren't nearly as smart as Light was and you've already made too many mistakes to save yourself, Sidho will have to take your life soon. How about now Sidho? I could do it so easily, I know how squeamish you are about getting your hands dirty." He caressed the black book at his side and I felt fear slide down my spine as anger burned in my gut. How dare he threaten me?
"What is he talking about Sid? You'd never hurt me." Sid looked away. "Sid?"
"You haven't told her?" Ryuk asked.
"Told me what?"
"The human owner of the Death Note can neither go to Heaven or Hell. It is the privilege of the Shinigami responsible for the Death Note to take the owner's life once his or her time runs out. Just like I did with Light when he got boring." My skin felt cold as the blood drained from my face.
"Light died from bullet wounds."
"That's just what the police said," Ryuk reached for his Death Note and flipped the pages until he found the one he wanted. Turning it towards me I saw, in the same writing that marked the cover of my Death Note, the name Light Yagami. I felt like I was going to throw up.
"But you were his friend." He laughed; I was seriously starting to hate that sound.
"We were never friends and he knew it from day one. I'm not like that soft idiot." He gestured towards Sid over his shoulder and I was reminded of Sid's words that day in the bleachers. Other Shinigami are used to me messing up, I immediately knew that Ryuk was Sid's main tormentor and that just made me even angrier.
"Leave him out of this, Sid is my friend and he would never hurt me. Now tell me about Light." With a sigh Ryuk sat on the edge of my bed.
"I was bored so…" He went on to tell me about how Light had used the notebook to kill criminals through a series of mysterious heart attacks and how L had quickly become involved. I found myself on the edge of my seat as he described the cat and mouse game between the two master strategists. He told me about how famous pop idol Misa Amane had also received a Death Note and a Shinigami named Rem; her stunts as the second Kira had nearly cost Light his cover. After that the story got confusing as Death Notes were switched between people and Shinigami until he got to the part where Light tricked Rem into killing L and his assistant Watari. After that, Light had faced no opposition towards creating his perfect world with Misa by his side, it wasn't until Near's appearance as the head of the Special Provision for Kira or SPK that Light again ran into trouble, trouble that had gotten him killed.
After Ryuk was done I sat in silence trying to absorb his story. If what he said was true it would only be a matter of time before the interview reached the ears of Near and he came for me. I knew Misa had given up possession of her Death Note, thus erasing her memory of everything that had transpired; I looked at Sid who was still standing in the corner. I wasn't ready to give it back yet, what if I needed it to protect Mary? If worse came to worse I could always make the Shinigami eye deal with Sid, discover Near's real name and kill him before he got the chance to kill me. Ryuk paused in his exploration of my room to stand in front of me.
"You got anymore apples?"
Jumping I looked up at him, "Yeah," I gave Sid a look as I walked out my door and he obediently followed me to the kitchen. "Can I trust him?"
"Ryuk likes to amuse himself, if it suited him he would lie. But I don't think he has any reason to right now."
"I am so dead."
"He just likes to make trouble, you shouldn't listen to him."
"I don't know Sid, I'm not smart like Light was or Misa." I grabbed another apple and walked back to my room. Tossing it at Ryuk I sat in front of my computer again. "Thanks for your help but I think you should probably go now, one Shinigami is enough for me."
Ryuk sprouted large wings from his back, "You just became interesting Violet Mason, I'll be watching you." With that he climbed out my window and flew off, cackling as he went.
"Like that doesn't sound like nine kinds of creepy with some serious stalker mixed in," I said as I got up to close my window. Sid agreed and drifted out of my room, I assumed to get some chocolate or something. Returning to my computer I pulled up Google and typed "Kira investigation" into the little box again, determined to find the answers I wanted this time. I had to know who the mysterious Mr. M was at all costs.
Two hours later I had my answers, or at least some of them. The members of the Kira task force had been: Chief Soichiro Yagami, Light Yagami, L, Watari, Shuichi Aizawa, Kanzo Mogi, Hideki Ide, Hirokazu Ukita, and Touta Matsuda. Taking my list I crossed off members who I knew to be dead leaving me with Shuichi Aizawa, Kanzo Mogi, Hideki Ide, Hirokazu Ukita, and Touta Matsuda. I then began typing their names into Google, at first it was slow going but I soon learned that Ukita had been the first victim of Misa Amane, Aizawa and Ide had died in a police shootout two years ago, and Mogi had ironically died of a heart attack shortly after the end of the Kira investigation. That left me with one man who could have been intimately involved in the Kira investigation and who would have known about the Death Notes: Touta Matsuda, which would fit nicely with the alias Mr. M.
Deciding to test my theory I pulled out my Death Note and the red pen, Googling Matsuda's name I came up with a picture of a middle aged man with a distinguished mustache and graying black hair heralded as the new police chief of some Japanese city. I felt bad for having to kill a police chief who was only trying to protect people but it was necessary to protect myself. He was in my way and could blow my cover. Writing his name down I opted for a heart attack, hoping that the significance of the event would keep others from poking their noses where they didn't belong. Once that was done I decided to go to bed early and see what tomorrow would bring.
Oh my God! She killed Matsuda! Sorry to all the fan girls out there, I swear I didn't know she was going to do it! But things are getting interesting, no? Just wait until the next chapter ;) Bwahahaha