Chapter Five: A Bad Feeling
(A/N): WARNING- Foul language ahead.
"Is this that Rogue you mentioned?"
"No, this is called a Dark Creature," he informed me, "It's created inside the mind until it takes a form."
My eyes widened. "Does that mean..." I looked back down to the naked girl and the shadow being the loomed over her, "Nagasaki created it?"
"Hai. That is why I need you." I looked over at him, his dark eyes pouring into me with authority. "I need you to get inside her head and see what caused this."
Inside her head? I felt a wave of nausea.
L squatted back down to Nagasaki and pressed two fingers to her wrist. "Her pulse is normal. She's probably just mentally exhausted." The shadow being didn't seem to want L to get near it. It kept batting away without getting away from Nagasaki.
I sat down next to him on my knees, soaking my school pants with water. "How do I...get inside her head?"
"The same way you always do."
"But..." I licked my dry lips, "But I can't listen to someone's thoughts when they're asleep."
His dark eyes moved to mine. "I'm not asking you to listen. I want you to see. You can see into people's memories, am I right?"
"What?" I blinked at him, my mouth agape, "How did you know…?"
"I need you to do it right now."
"But I've never done it on purpose. It was always by accident."
"Have you ever tried to see someone's memories?"
"N-Not really, but..."
"Try it now."
"What?"
His dark eyes bore into me. They were all I could look at. Was he hypnotizing me? Making me do it? Yet, when I saw him use his technique on Misa and her mother, his eyes were white, but right now they were still that haunted black. "You can do it, Yagami-kun."
I broke eye contact and looked back to Nagasaki and the black thing. I swallowed what felt like a golf ball and moved closer to her. I was glad the thing backed away; it didn't seem to want to touch me either. Okay, now how was I supposed to do this? I placed two fingers on each side of her temples; that was how it was always done in the movies. I closed my eyes and breathed, just like I used to do when I took Kendo in junior high. I could hear my old coach's voice in my ears. 'Concentrate Yagami. Ya have to concentrate. Concentrate…concentrate…concentrate…
And then I was falling. The sensation of wind blew around me, but I couldn't tell what they were. Strange designs and colors whirled around me like water marks. I could smell something. It smelled like clean clothes and rain. The colors and shapes blended together until I was standing inside a someone's bedroom. There was a bed and an open closet. On top of the bed was a basket of neatly folded clothes. Was this Nagasaki's room? She didn't seem to be in here. I walked over to the door, twisted the knob, and walked out into the hallway. If this was her house, it wasn't the one where I was before.
It was so quiet in this house. I could hear my footsteps fall against the wood floor.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
Shit! I took off running down the hall until I was in a carpeted living room. I didn't see anyone. I knew that was Nagasaki who screamed. I ran left into the kitchen and I saw her one the floor. Her hair was shorter, cut to her shoulders, but she didn't seem to look much younger. She had on a white night gown that had tears in it.
"Please, don't hurt me anymore!" she cried out, lifting her hand over her head.
A figure loomed over her, but it was not the black being. It was a person. A girl with short red hair and devil-like eyes. The hair on my arms stood on end.
It was Nagasaki. There were two of them. The one with devil eyes raised her arm above her head, brandishing a machete.
"No!" I ran over and took the girl by the arm, keeping the knife in the air. We struggled against each other.
"Stop!" I heard the Nagasaki behind me scream, "Just let her kill me! I deserve it!"
'What?' I thought to myself. There was no way I was going to let this psycho-girl go and attack her. Who was this person anyway? Her sister? Did Nagasaki have a twin? The girl was smaller than me and weaker, so it was easy for me to keep her at bay. I looked back and saw Nagasaki rise to her feet.
"Please don't interfere," she said, "She's been trying for so long. Just let her do it."
"Are you out of your mind?" I snapped at her, "If you think I'm going to just stand by and let her kill you, you are sorely mistaken." I pushed the Nagasaki with devil eyes back. "I have a little sister, and because I'm her big brother I have to protect her."
Further back I pushed her. She growled deep in her throat and tried to wrench the knife away. I saw behind her that the floor and walls were breaking apart into nothingness. I knew it, I was winning. I was overcoming this strange phenomenon that was Nagasaki's mind.
We came to the edge where only nothingness was behind us. I looked back to Nagasaki. Her eyes were wide and her hand was over her heart. I gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be your big brother for now, so let me protect you."
Instead of pushing the evil Nagasaki over the edge like I had planned, she had somehow gained an upper foot and pushed me back. Now she had the knife pointed at me with her palm behind the hilt. She was going to drive it into my chest. Would it kill me?
"STOP!" The other Nagasaki ran past me and grabbed her double around the waist. Both of them tipped over the edge and they were falling. I put my hand out to grab them, but it was too late. I was also tumbling down.
"Yagami-kun."
His voice brought me back. I opened my eyes to the land of the living. Nagasaki was still asleep, but as I looked, I saw the black figure was gone. I looked to L who had that small smile on his lips.
"You did it, Yagami-kun."
"How...?" I breathed.
"How did you do it?" he finished for me. Then he pressed his fingernail between his teeth. "Who knows?"
Later we found out about Nagasaki's guilt. She had moved here recently from Kyoto because her mother's death. She didn't want to stay at school so she faked being ill. Her mother was stabbed in the back while at the market by a random robber while shopping for medicine. Nagasaki believed it was her fault. The trauma was too much for her.
It reminded me of a quote I once heard. "A beautiful mind can be a deadly tool", or something like that. Still, I had no idea how people thought inside their heads until I met up with the P.I.S., even with my thought-reading powers. The world around me now seemed more fragile and paper-like. We didn't just have to worry about the criminals, but other strange creatures humans weren't aware of. Perhaps it was because of P.I.S. that I began seeing more of these creatures I never had before. Over the weeks, I called them up several times about Hell Bugs I had seen on people passing them on the street. I would follow them to make sure.
"Here," Mello said to me, holding out the pen-like thing I had stabbed the Hell Bug on Misa, "Take this. You're finding Hell Bugs faster than we are. There's a neutralizer in the tip. It will make the person forget the last fifteen minutes."
I had yet to use it, thankfully.
It had been at that moment I realized that I had made myself one of them. I had entered the Paranormal Investigation Squad; granted that I refused to join before. Then I found myself actually looking forward to seeing them. My entire routine had changed. After school I would go directly to headquarters, or I would stop by home and change then go. I started to enjoy hanging out with Mello, Near, Matt, and L.
I started to learn more about the quadruples. Matt was very much into videogames and played them every chance he had, and he was supposed to stop smoking, so he did so in secret. Mello seemed to have an attachment to chocolate. I noticed he always seemed to have a bar of milk chocolate on him at all times. His relationship with Matt was that of a high friendship level, whereas his relationship with Near was like an older brother that teased and protected his little brother. Near was quiet and shy and had a strange interest in toys that seemed too young for his age, but was also a whiz at puzzles; everyday he was building a new one thousand piece puzzle. I could see that he envied Mello and Matt's friendship, though he never outwardly said anything; his shyness got in the way of his socialism.
L on the other hand was a different matter. It was hard for my mind to wrap around him, not just because I couldn't get inside his noggin in the first place. He was unlike anyone I had ever seen or met. Everything about him was odd, yet he radiated dominance. Even with his slumped over stance he seemed to tower above us all. He would immediately take control as soon as he walked into the room. He was a leader, a natural born leader. He also had a very strong liking to sweets, just like Mello, but as where Mello's taste was chocolate, L's taste seemed to be sugar. Period. Anything that had sugar he would eat; I had actually seen him eat plain sugar cubes. His particular diet made my teeth hurt.
However, I would never be able to tell my father about my relationship with the Paranormal Investigators. One day after I had arrived home just in time for dinner, I had overheard his conversation on the telephone and found out about his distaste toward the P.I.S.
"Those people in the Paranormal Squad or whatever are driving me crazy," I heard him say from his office. I stopped and leaned against the door to listen. "They keep bugging me to let them join. If they try to interfere with the Takami murder, we're going to arrest them for corrupting a police investigation."
I walked away in the opposite direction and went up the stairs to my room. I felt the pit of my stomach drop. If the Squad was involved, something must be happening, however, I couldn't allow L to continue the investigation after the threat I had just eavesdropped upon. I opened my cell phone and dialed a number.
"Hello," came the answer.
"L, this is Raito," I said.
"Hello Raito-kun," he said, "Is everything okay?"
"I heard my dad talking. He was talking about a Takami case. Heard of it?"
"Hmm. Oh yes, it is a murder case I believe. I've been trying to help the police by catching the killer but it seems they are stubborn to cooperate."
"Well, L, I think it might be best for you if you didn't intervene. Dad is threatening to throw you in jail."
"Yes, I've heard his threats toward my person. Do not fret, Raito-kun. I will be fine. I will only do what I need to do."
I didn't like the sound of that. The last thing I wanted to see was L in jail for trying to help police. "Please, L, just keep out of this one. They don't need you," I pleaded.
"But Raito-kun, they do need my help. They are just unaware of it at the moment."
This took me back. I paused for two seconds. "What do you mean?"
"Raito, I am a detective, but my field is in the paranormal."
"Does…does that mean something paranormal killed that woman?"
"Evidence seems to point to a Rogue, and we cannot let the police know anything about Rogues. You understand."
I opened my mouth to say that he could, but luckily I caught myself. They couldn't let the people know about Rogues, though I was yet to see one. It would cause an uproar, and I could just see the entire squad being sent to loony bins. "I understand. What will happen to the police's case if they aren't able to prove who did it?"
"Well, our case file will close when we discover what Rogue did it and bring it to justice. However, the police case file may continue to be unsolved. Many cold cases are because of the paranormal that they are unaware of. That is where we come in."
"Is that what you really do? Solve cases that deal with the paranormal?"
"I am not in position to release too much information to those outside the P.I.S., but you are a smart person."
So it was true. That was the real reason why the P.I.S. was formed. I paused, not saying anything. L stayed silent, knowing that I was still on the line. I ran my tongue over my teeth in thought. After a few seconds, I finally decided.
"L, I want to help you with the Takami case."
"That is unnecessary, Raito-kun, but thank you. I do not desire you to be in trouble with your father. He would not like it if he found out if his only son, a prodigy for the police at that, was hanging around a bunch of ghosts hunters." He ended with a small laugh.
"But..."
"Don't fret about it, Raito-kun. I will handle everything. I have to go. Thank you for everything. Goodbye."
I heard him hang up, but it took me a while to actually follow after him. I flopped down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. L could handle himself, I knew that, but did he really know that when my father said something, it was going to be done? Of course, L could always just hypnotize him not to put him in jail and help with the investigation, but he was better than that. He wouldn't do something like that.
"I only use my powers when the situation is dire," he had said to me one day at Headquarters, "I don't like to use my eyes for my own fortune, so I never will."
And I believed him. It was something about L and his haunted eyes that made you completely trust him. Something about his persona that made you feel safe around him, though he was far from the bodyguard type. Yet, something kept itching at me. Something didn't feel right...
Tonya LeBarski was just another tourist here in Tokyo and was only taking pictures of the scenery and whatever she could put in her scrapbook. Her camera was a digital, and after every flash of her camera, she would look at the screen to see if it was worthy of her taste, and if not, it would be deleted.
Her brown eyes shot over to the left while she stood, taking pictures of the cherry blossom trees. However, her target was not the falling sakuras, but the boys she was currently staring out in her peripheral vision. She turned slightly more, getting the boys in view of her camera.
'He wasn't kidding when he said I'd know who they were when I saw them,' she thought to herself.
Her camera zoomed in on the three boys that sat on the wooden and concrete bench. They all stood out like sore thumbs, but one in particular stood out the most: a white boy, white hair, pale skin, all dressed in white. The first she saw him she had done a double-take. The other two weren't albino looking. One had blonde hair that came to his shoulders and he wore black leather and vinyl and gloves. He had worn sunglasses and that severely disappointed her, but to her luck, he had removed them. The other one was the more plain one of the teenagers. Striped shirt, gloves, and goggles. It must've been the new look for kids.
She brought her camera to her face, eying through the eyepiece, focusing on Mello. That is what his name had been. Mello.
Click.
Click.
After a few more snapshots of the oblivious-to-being-stalked blonde, Tonya wiped her camera clean with a handkerchief and walked over to the boys.
She saw Mello, her camera target, push the striped shirt boy playfully as she approached.
"Excuse me," she said, talking to Mello, "I was wondering if you could take a picture of me." She only knew a few words of Japanese, but by the looks of them, they weren't from Japan either.
Mello smiled, a nice one too. "No problem. By the cherry blossoms?" He spoke perfect English. 'Just like he said he would,' she thought.
"Yes please," she smiled and handed him the digital camera.
Tonya walked over between two sakura trees and smiled. Mello pressed the button and it flashed. After the picture was taken, she quickly strolled over and took the camera from him.
"Thank you," she said, smiling.
"Do you want me to take another picture?" Mello asked, "I think you had your eyes closed."
She smiled and declined, then said her goodbyes and left the park. She was careful not to touch where Mello had touched. In her car, she placed the camera in a clear bag and zipped it tight. With a loud screech, the car zoomed off, leaving a tire trail where she skid.
Mello raised his eyebrows. "Strange woman," he muttered, digging into his pockets for a chocolate bar.
Matt shrugged his shoulders as his fingers played his Nintendo DS. "Probably late for something. She looked like a business woman."
As the car got farther away, Tonya looked in her rearview mirror to see them behind her. She could see the one of the albino boy--Near, she remembered from the notes on him--was staring at her, right into her eyes. His blue eyes boring into her brown ones through the mirror. That stare unnerved her, but she mentally shook her head.
There was no way he could know what she did. They knew nothing.
Though the weekend was approaching, my spirit was not lifted. The itching speculation that something bad was going to happen kept nagging at my brain all day at school. I was unable to go to Headquarters after school because of a chemistry exam Misa had to study for, and with her attention span and diluted brain for equations, it was going to be an all-day affair.
"But what if you took Aluminum and Argon?" Misa asked, staring at her open textbook as if it was a different language, "How would the equation go then?"
We sat at her kitchen table with books and papers spread around us. My palm was currently cradling my cheek as I stared in a daze at the jumble of words. "There wouldn't be an equation," I said groggily, "Argon is of the noble gases and can't combine with anything. It would just be Argon."
She pouted her bottom lip. "But, what about that electron sharing-thingy the teacher mentioned? Couldn't the Argon atom give his electron to the Aluminum one?"
"No," I answered bored, "Argon is a stable atom. It cannot give up it's electrons because then it would become unstable."
"I don't get it."
I caught myself before my head hit the table. Misa was my friend, but when it came to studying, I felt as if her ignorance was drain me of my own I.Q.
However, it seemed that luck had shown some mercy for me because right after that, my cell phone jingled and danced on the table. When I looked, I recognized Mello's cell phone number.
"I've got to take this," I said to Misa, then I answered, "Hello?"
"Raito?" It wasn't Mello.
"This is he," I said.
"Raito, this is Matt. Listen, um, we kind of need your help with something."
I felt a cold chill go down my spine. This was it, wasn't it? The reason I've been uptight all day.
"What is it?" I asked, calmly.
"Well..."
"Somebody stole my fucking car!" Mello yelled loudly, pulling at his blonde hair, "I can't believe this! Some asshole fucking stole my car!"
I stood at the scene. It was a parking garage downtown. Mello kept dancing around in one spot and pulling his hair. I assumed it was where the car was previously parked.
"When was did you find it missing?" I asked Matt.
He took a long drag of a cigarette and exhaled the gray smoke. "We left here around seven-thirty."
I looked at my watch. "That means it's been two hours. Have you made a police report yet?"
"--When I find them I'm going to rip off their heads and mount it on the hood of my car--!" Mello cried out again in anger.
"We're going to," Matt said, "But as you know the police aren't exactly kind to us right now."
"Right." I said. We both looked to watching Mello continue to curse profanity at people that weren't there.
"I'm not exactly sure how I can help you," I said, shrugging, "The best you can do is file a stolen vehicle report."
Mello marched over to me and snatched my cell phone right out of my pocket. "Hey!" I protested.
"Mine was stolen, remember," he grumbled as he began punching in numbers.
"That doesn't mean you can just take mine!" I snapped at him.
He ignored me and put my phone to his ear. "Hello L? Yeah, I'm fine. I've got Raito here with me." He looked to me, "L says hi." I rolled my eyes, but for someone reason, I felt a strange delight. "Look, I've got some really bad news; my car was stolen. Yeah. It doesn't matter that I left the keys inside. How do you think I'm going to get my car back? Why else would I call you? I'm sorry for snapping at you. Okay. Thanks."
He hung up the phone and smiled. I wasn't sure I liked that smile. It was quite creepy and dark.
And then Mello said, "I'm breaking into the security."