Fourth Chapter! It was a little later than the others, but things happen, right? Now, go forth and read!
Disclaimer: Psh, I don't own Death Note. If I did, I definitely wouldn't be writing this here, I'd be off doing cool things that people that own awesome things do...yeah...
Ryuuzaki and Light were in the hotel room when the message was broadcasted. Watari had told them frantically what was happening and they turned on the television just in time to hear the speech. It was interesting to say the least.
"So there's another person fighting Kira?" Matsuda asked.
"Yes, it looks like there is." Ryuuzaki said. "It is a long message, so the person probably thought it out. They seem to know something though."
"Yeah, they said they knew everything about Kira, except for their real identity." Light said. "They can't be the second Kira, then, if they really met them like Ryuuzaki said."
"So it's a new person?" Chief Yagami asked.
"Yes, this is a whole other person. I believe they have a very strong set of morals. They must believe that others do not know the right thing to do and he wishes to help them."
"He also said that there was something only he could do, Ryuuzaki. What does that mean? Maybe it has to do with what he knows about Kira."
"It makes sense. If he is the only one who knows something about Kira, then he is the only one who can do something about it." The detective said. "I think he has a plan."
"What makes you say that?" Light asked.
"He challenged me to find him. He probably wants to tell me what he knows, so we can catch Kira. The only problem is he wants me to find him, so he still needs some time. He might still have something to do before he helps. I don't know how much time he needs. I don't know when to find him."
"How do you even know this isn't a fake? Someone tricking us?" Aizawa asked. He didn't think anyone could know more about this than their team.
"Who would go to so much trouble to trick us?" Light countered. "Like Ryuuzaki said, this is well thought out. Why would someone looking for a laugh do this? That would be absolutely cruel."
"Could it be Kira? He already kills people, why can't he trick them too?" Matsuda asked.
"Kira kills criminals, he's trying to make the world better, even if his methods are horrible. He wouldn't want to cause chaos, it wouldn't make sense." Ryuuzaki answered.
"The voice of this person is computerized, so we can't do anything with that." The detective reached over to his computer. "Watari, I need you to check the television station to see if anything there can help us find this person."
"Right away." The older man answered.
"I will find this new person and find out what they know. They have very useful information." Ryuuzaki mumbled.
Light was worried. If this person really knew so much about them, then did that mean they also had a Death Note? Or he knew of it. Could you know of the Death Note but not actually have one? Did it work that way? It probably did. If he knew, then why would he do something like this, though? Did he want him to panic and make a wrong move? Or maybe he just wanted to tell others of their intentions. On second thought, if they had a Death Note, then why would he have the opinions he has? If they had a Death Note, then why would they believe killing is bad? Both Misa and he had killed when they got a Death Note. Did they even have a Death Note? What was their goal?
"Do I make the first move and call them? Or should I wait until they call?" Blake asked out loud while staring at her phone. Gem scoffed.
"That's an easy answer. You don't have their numbers, you have to wait." Gem answered, appearing behind the girl. Blake sighed.
"I guess you're right. What do I do then? I can't just wait here, so much has happened since we last met!"
"Look for something else. You know, on the computer. Surely there's something you haven't seen yet. Maybe the people on the internet are talking about that new video."
"You're right, they probably are. Maybe there's something else." Blake said with a sigh. She drug herself out of bed and over to the desk in the corner where her laptop still stood.
It was another thirty minutes before she found anything. Everything she came across was something she already knew. She needed more access. What she found wasn't even that important.
"Look, Gem. They're calling the new one Creed." Blake said, lazily pointing at the screen of her computer. There were already pages talking about Creed. People all over Japan were talking about him. Who was he? Could he really save them? Of course there were still the comments that were mean. They were saying it was all some joke, someone was just tricking them. There were even a few out there claiming they were Creed. No one believed them, though. Most of the other people thought that they were just some crazy person, but how did they know? Maybe one of them was Creed and they just told them to go die. What would they do then? They would have just killed off their only hope, besides L. Blake sighed.
"These people are just idiots." She muttered. "Dying isn't something to joke about."
"That's what you think." Gem said. Blake bent back over the back of her chair to glare upside down at the shinigami. "I was just saying, don't be so mad." He said, crossing his arms, though it was more like they just folded on top of each other. Being a doll monster made it harder to move, apparently.
"Whatever," Blake mumbled. She didn't really feel like dealing with him at the moment. Sighing as she stood, Blake grabbed a sweatshirt and pulled it over her head. She slipped on a pair of shoes and grabbed her phone.
"Going somewhere?" Gem asked.
"I can't stay in this room any longer." She growled. "The only thing to do in here is staring at the ceiling and yelling at you. At least if I'm outside, I can stare at other people."
As Blake walked down the sidewalk away from her hotel, she stared at the sky. It was gray and cloudy, it would probably rain later. Good thing she wore a jacket. There weren't very many people on the streets, most were in cars. The people who were outside were rushing, trying to make it to their destination before the rain started. Blake was the only one leisurely walking. She stopped walking when the rain started falling. Her arms were safe under her black hoodie, but she was wearing shorts, so her legs were bare. Within minutes they were dripping wet. Blake didn't care, though, she liked the rain. Instead of looking for shelter, she just pulled her hood up and continued walking. With her hands in her jacket pocket, she fingered her phone. She hoped someone would call, Light or Ryuga specifically. They were her main suspects, and she needed something to do.
"It's raining," Gem said from her right. Blake didn't look at him, they were in public after all.
"Really?" Blake said sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed. Look how empty the streets are when it rains. It's so weird."
"Yea, weird." Gem answered. Shrill chimes suddenly burst through the silence and Blake winced. She really needed to change her ringtone. She could think about it later, right now she was too excited to see who was calling. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened it.
"Hello?" she said cheerfully.
"Blake? This is Ryuga." The other person on the other side said.
"Oh, hi! It's nice to talk to you again." Blake answered. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about something." Ryuga said. "Have you heard about Creed?"
"That new guy who's claiming to be our best hope? Yeah, I've heard of him." She answered, putting a hand on her hip.
"I take it you do not like Creed?"
"It depends, I guess. I want to believe them when they say they'll stop Kira, but I can't. If this is just some kid tricking people, I don't know what I would do."
"Hm, I understand. Is that all you think of him?" Ryuga asked. She seemed like a very careful person, she didn't easily give her trust. Why had she so readily given Light and him her phone number then?
"No, I think there might be something else going on. There are many possibilities. One thing that comes to mind is that he might be working with Kira, or Kira himself. How else would he know so much about him? They couldn't have figured it out before L of all people. He's the best detective in the world. He wants to help L, but not yet, so he's probably got something to do before then. Heck, he might not even know what Kira really does, and the time he needs is to figure it out." Blake said, sounding annoyed. "If it really is real, though, I'd say the person's probably trying to help catch Kira."
"You have an interesting theory, Blake." Ryuga said before pausing. "But I have to ask, what is that noise?"
"Noise?" Blake said with a laugh. "I'm taking a walk. It's probably the wind or something."
"You're outside? Blake, it's raining." Ryuga said.
"So astute, Ryuga." Blake teased. "Yeah, it's raining and I'm taking a walk. I needed some fresh air."
"You should go inside. You'll catch a cold." Ryuga advised. "What do you mean you need some air?"
"I was stuck in my hotel room and I just couldn't stay in there anymore. And I won't get sick, thanks for worrying though."
"Thank you for your insight, Blake. I will probably call you again on these matters." Ryuga said.
"Finally taking an interest in Kira, Ryuga? I'm glad. Kira needs to be caught as soon as possible. That's why I'm hoping Creed isn't a hoax. We need a little more hope."
"Do you not trust L?"
"No! Why would you think that?" Blake said, sounding offended. "He's the best detective ever, if I don't trust him, I don't trust anyone. It's just that even he doesn't have much to go on. If someone out there knows so much about Kira, it makes people feel better. You know what I mean?"
"Yes, you think Creed represents hope. More so than L." Ryuga asked slowly, obviously thinking about her statements.
"Exactly. We need a little hope to go along with our genius detective, don't we? I hope L finds Creed soon. The sooner the better."
"Would you like to meet in person some time, Blake? I would like to talk to you in depth about these things."
"Sure, when?" Blake asked excitedly. She was getting closer to one of her subjects. Perfect.
"How about tomorrow we meet in the same Starbucks as before at eight in the morning?" Ryuga asked. It was a test of course. Tomorrow was a Wednesday, and eight would definitely be a time when people would be working. Surely if Blake was working, she would have to check something, right?
"Sounds great!" Blake answered without hesitation. "I'll see you then, Ryuga. Bye!"
"Goodbye." Ryuga answered before hanging up the phone. Blake smiled and pulled her phone away from her ear.
"Perfect. Gem, can you believe that went so well?" Blake said with a wide smile.
"Yes, it went great. Now can we go back inside?" Gem asked desperately.
"Oh, come on Gem, you can't even get wet out here." Blake said, turning to her shinigami. "Oh, fine. Let's go. I need a hot shower anyways."
Ryuga set the phone down on his desk in front of him. Blake Jones was no ordinary woman. She didn't hesitate before telling him the time would be okay, so she spent no time thinking about it. If she was really here for work she would hesitate, even if she had the day off, to be sure. Why was she outside? No one would get cabin fever that badly if she had work to do. Why would she go outside in the rain in the first place? She also didn't ask for directions again, but she needed them so badly before. Ryuga had a feeling that she was hiding something.
"Watari, make sure I get to Starbucks at eight tomorrow." The detective said to the only other person in the room.
"I will." He said. The younger man went back to his thoughts about the mysterious woman. She had a very odd view on the recent events. She said she trusted L with her whole heart, but she didn't think he provided the hope necessary. She also didn't know whether or not to trust Creed. She quite obviously had trust issues. Ryuga wanted to know more about this girl, so he tried to find her name in the system. What he found was odd. A credit card in her name was used to buy a hotel room in Japan recently. The last place the card was use was Russia, but she seemed to disappear for a while in between. Blake could have used cash, but it was at least a month in between activity in her card. That was a very long time to only live on cash. One other problem was when she got the hotel room. When they had first met, she said that she'd been there for weeks, but she only bought the hotel room the day before she showed up in front of the University. She lied, but why? Was she trying to make herself look like the second Kira?
Ryuga continued his search on Blake Jones and found nothing. Absolutely nothing other than credit card purchases in some different countries. They all had large mysterious gaps in between each use. There was no record of her working at a telephone company, there was no record of her even living in America. There wasn't even a birth certificate for 'Blake Jones', so she obviously wasn't using her real name. Did she know that much about Kira? Or was she just hiding? What was she hiding from, then? Blake was a complete mystery and he wanted to figure it out.
Blake woke up at six the next day. She wanted to give herself plenty of time to get ready for her meeting with Ryuga. She had a feeling that it would be more than just a conversation. It was going to be a test. After she hung up the phone the day before, she wanted to smack herself. There was no hesitation in her answer, she made it pretty obvious that she wasn't actually working here. Blake had to make up for that mistake today. This was probably the most exciting day she's had in a very long time. Blake froze while she was brushing her hair. Today was the most exciting day? Really? That was terrible, what kind of life was she living anymore? Blake shrugged and went back to brushing her hair. She had a feeling things were going to change soon.
An hour and a half later, Blake was walking out the doors of the hotel and towards the Starbucks she was going to meet Ryuga at. She wanted to get there with plenty of time to spare, just in case. She was wearing the same sweatshirt as the day before, she had gotten it to dry that night, and jeans. Very casual, which was part of her plan, of course. She needed to make it as obvious as possible that she had the day off.
The streets were just as full as always, people were crowded everywhere. Somehow, though, Blake avoided running into any of them. She quickly found herself in front of the Starbucks she was meeting the man at. Smiling, she walked in and looked around, not expecting to find anyone, but quickly found that she wasn't the only one that arrived early. Ryuga was sitting at a table in the corner, sipping on coffee and sitting in his usual manner. Blake had to try not to laugh when she saw the wide berth the other people in the shop were giving him. The woman walked over to the table and sat down in front of her new friend, getting strange looks from the others.
"Hello, Ryuga. It's nice to see you again." She said pleasantly. Ryuga looked up at her from his cup, which she could now see was full of tea.
"Hello, Blake." He said. "Shall we get started?"
"Yes, that would be nice." Blake answered, noticing that there was an uneasy tension in the air. It was completely different from the friendly environment they had before.
"You told me your opinions on the phone earlier, would you like to elaborate?"
"On Creed?" She asked, getting a nod from the other. "Well, as I said, I really hope he is what he says he is. The people around here need all the hope they can get. However, I can't trust this person. I do not know who they are and I don't know if it's a trick. I can't afford to believe in something that will only hurt me in the end. I'll rely on myself to save the people I love, or at least I try." Blake said, her voice dropping at the end, telling Ryuga that there was something personal going on there.
"But what about the others? The people on the streets, are you just going to let them have false hope?"
"Sometimes a lie is the best thing for a person." Blake said simply, looking down at her hands folded on the table. There was a long pause between the two.
"Ryuga, what do you think about this whole thing?" Blake asked. "The Kiras and L and Creed? What's happening to us?" Ryuga stared at her for a second before answering. The hopelessness in her voice was so evident that he wasn't sure what to say.
"I think things are going downhill. What's happening right now is just a product of the world right now." He paused. "You should believe in L, he'll stop Kira." Blake looked up at him, her green eyes showing just a hint of the pain behind them before they changed back to their usual look. Ryuga hadn't noticed before, but the look in her eyes usually wasn't happiness or anything like that, it was nothing. There was nothing in her eyes. She was hiding everything she was feeling.
"You're right, Ryuga, I should just trust L to save us all. It's all I can do anyway. Maybe Creed isn't a fake and he'll help too. I hope they catch Kira soon. I'm tired of listening to the horrible news all the time." She smiled. There was another pause. Their conversation was quiet, so only they could hear it, but there were a few people trying to secretly listen. Blake gave them a look and within the minute, they got up and left the Starbucks quickly. Ryuga watched this with wide eyes.
"Who are you?" He asked suddenly, making Blake turn back to him.
"What do you mean, Ryuga?" Blake asked innocently.
"I think you know exactly what I mean, 'Blake'. What is your real name? Why are you using a fake?" Ryuga continued, looking Blake right in the eyes. He watched as the mask crumbled for another second before she fixed it and looked at him seriously.
"You looked me up then? I thought you would take a little longer before you tried to find me." She said with a wry smile. "You got me. My name isn't Blake Jones and I don't work for a phone company. My name is actually Alice Carroll." Ryuga noticed her accent change into something other than American. It sounded completely Irish, even though they were still speaking Japanese. Where had he heard that name before? It was very familiar.
"Alice Carroll the detective?" Ryuga asked, his already wide eyes widening a fraction.
"Yeah, that's me."
"But I heard you didn't take many cases, why now?"
"I haven't done a big case in a very long time, and I wanted a change of pace. That and I heard L was on this case. If there was a case he was struggling on, I wanted to join in. L is sort of an idol for us lower detectives."
"I wouldn't call you a lower detective though, Alice. There are a lot of people who know your name."
"Not like L, though Ryuga. But that's not your real name either, is it?" Blake asked.
"I do not want to reveal that information right now. Why are you hiding your identity, Alice? Or should I call you Blake still?"
"Please, still call me Blake, and don't tell anyone else that I'm Alice. It could cause troubles for me. I'm hiding it because it's easier to investigate when no one knows you're here. You know how it goes." Blake said with an innocent smile.
"I'm sorry Blake, but I'm not sure I do." Ryuga said before standing from his chair, still with hunched posture. "I have to go now, Blake, but I will stay in contact, I think. We have only spoken of you and Creed today, not of Kira and L. I would still like to know your opinions on them as well."
"Of course, Ryuga. My phone is always one." There was another smile. It still didn't reach her blank green eyes. She stayed seated and instead waved as Ryuga left. Blake was right in thinking that things would change with this conversation. Now someone knew who she was and why she was here. That hinders her investigation, especially if he tells someone else. She couldn't even imagine what would happen if he told Light, one of her suspects, who she was. Then there was Ryuga himself. He is not who he says he is. He basically admitted it to her. Who was he then? Blake had a feeling she knew, but she couldn't say for sure yet. She would have to look into him a little more.
L was in the care with Watari leaving the Starbucks and Blake behind. They were both silent, L was thinking about the past events. After a few minutes, Watari finally looked over at the younger man.
"How did it go, L?" he asked.
"There is more than one detective on this case, Watari. Blake Jones is Alice Carroll."
"Oh? That's unexpected." Watari answered before the car fell back into silence. L wasn't sure what to do. Blake was a detective as well, would she figure out as much as he did? Should he bring her onto the team like he did with Light? Although Light was his prime suspect. Blake wasn't completely innocent either, though. L thought there was something off about her. She was hiding something about her past. Perhaps she isn't Alice Carroll? Was that all an act as well? If it was, then the probability of her being Kira definitely increased. She probably wasn't the first Kira, seeing as Light was most likely the first, but she might be the second. If she was really Alice, would she have revealed herself so readily? It didn't make much since, she even told him that others knowing hindered her investigation. Blake Jones was hiding something very large, and L wanted to know what it was. Talking to her just made that urge stronger. The pain in her eyes was terrible, something bad in her past then?
"We should act on my suspicions soon, Watari. We need to know who the second Kira is."
Blake was back in her hotel within the next twenty minutes. She wasn't exactly satisfied with how the conversation went. She found out next to nothing about him while he now knew many things about her. She walked to her room and swiped the card. Entering the room, she completely ignored Gem and instead just flopped on her bed with a huff. Blake buried her head in her pillow and sighed.
"I take it that didn't go as well as you were hoping?" Gem asked her. In response, he only got another exaggerated sigh. "I'll go with yes." He laughed.
Blake just lay there for a while, not wanting to do anything in particular. She probably just blew her cover and she would have to find a new way to investigate. Eventually, Blake just curled up and went to sleep.
It was nighttime when Blake woke up again. The sun was down and a crescent moon had filled the sky. She frowned a bit, why had she slept so much? She only planned on taking a short nap. She was about to get out of bed when she heard a sound like a footstep. Blake froze, knowing that something was wrong. Gem didn't make any sounds like that and no one but she had a key. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a shadowy figure in her room. Blake prepared herself for a fight, getting ready to spring out of bed and attack this mysterious person. When she tried to get up though, she was frozen in place. Blake recognized the feeling running through her veins. Absolute terror. She could feel the tears start to leak out of her eyes as stared at the figure. It was obviously a man, he was too tall to be a woman. He took a step toward her and a whimper slipped from her lips before she could stop it. The man hurriedly stepped to the side of her bed, right next to her. A sob racked her body as she opened her mouth.
"Please," she said, her voice breaking badly. Just as the word left her mouth, though, something was pressed over her mouth. It was foul smelling and made her feel light headed. Before too long, everything faded into black.
Cliffhanger! Oh no! What happens next? Who knows? I do! Weee!
Review if you would, good sirs. I really like 'em.