Chapter Twenty-Six - Closer to You

Hand held out,
Eyes kind,
Gifts promised.
A knife returned.

"Ryuzaki, did you send someone to guard the station after I left the day we first met?"

The detective looks thoughtful for a moment, "Mr. Aizawa."

I look over at the police officer with the 'fro. He looks right back at me. I jump to my feet, sugar-fied coffee in hand. "Aizawa, come with me!" I instruct, and head for the stairs. The detective slowly follows me, brow furrowed in confusion.

As soon as we're up two flights of stairs into the main lobby (ground floor) I look over at him with a serious expression. "Did you see two people talking outside the Police Station when Ryuzaki asked you to return there?" I ask.

"Uh, I guess. It's kind of hard to remember, it was months ago, but yeah. I guess I did," he scratches the back of his head and raises an eyebrow at me.

"Did one of them have black hair?"

"I think a young woman did. I wasn't paying much attention," he shrugs.

"Aizawa, what if you had seen Naomi Misora?" my eyes are wide and shining.

"Then … I don't know."

"It means I just might have found evidence of her murder," I smile brightly, "Do you mind saying what you just told me on tape?"

"The Kira case is nearly over my friends!" I am laughing as I skip down the steps into the main investigation room. Everyone looks at me with surprise.

"You mean you know who Kira is?"

"I have evidence of Naomi's murder!" I shout excitedly. "Now all I have to do is find that little tidbit of information to tie her to the Kira case, and we can wrap this up!" I'm pretty much bouncing off the walls.

Or is that the sugar?

Aizawa follows me at a slower pace as I run up to Matsu and high-five him.

"Niiro, I am simply asking this in the event we do solve this case, but would you be willing to become a full-time detective?" Ryuzaki asks. I look over at the detective and blink owlishly a few times.

"Detective?"

"Well, I guess you could already call yourself one, after all, you found Naomi Misora."

I think for a moment, "What would happen if I said yes?" Everyone stares at the two of us, but we simply ignore them.

"You would become a detective."

"Obviously," I chuckle.

"Your deductive skills are rather impressive. Other detectives with years of experience weren't able to match your thought process while looking for her."

"L that is a wonderful offer, thank you, but I'll have to decline." Everyone else in the room seems surprised.

"Why would you throw away a chance like that?" Light asks me.

"I became Red because I wanted to help with this case. I've said this before – Kira disgusts me in a way that I can't fully describe. I want him brought to justice. After that, I want a normal life. If I really am as good as you think, then people would be after me. Just look at Ryuzaki, his entire life is centered on it; I don't want to be like that." I smile sadly, "In fact, I want to become a Journalist. That is what I'm going to College for."

"You would give that all up though?" Mr. Yagami asks. I look over at him.

"I never said I wanted fame or fortune," with a shrug, I head off to my floor.

"Hey Light," I say suddenly, looking up from my laptop.

"Yes?"

"I just realized that you haven't introduced me to your family yet," I look over at him with a small smirk tugging at my lips.

"Huh, I guess so. Tell you what, I'll call my mother and we can see if we can set up a time when you can come over for dinner." He gives me a glance that says 'what are you going to do?', then nods.

"Great," I smile.

Step one of my plan, commence.

"We interrogated all the passengers for you, except that one person," Andrews says, "I think you're on to something."

"Of course I am – that's why I sent you in the first place."

"So Kira was on the bus?"

"I'm pretty sure of that, but at the moment it's too dangerous for you to speak directly with our prime suspect. I'll handle that."

"… I underestimated you."

"Should I take that as a compliment?"

"Yeah, you should."

A few days later Light takes me home with him. I'm a little nervous, meeting his family and all. I've known Mr. Yagami for a few months, but for security reasons they do not know this.

I am curious to see his mother and younger sister. I don't know what kind of people they are. I'm hoping that they do not realize the only reason I'm dating their son is to convict him of being Kira.

Hopefully they like me.

I know for certain that Mr. Yagami will completely see through the act that I'm about to pull. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he figured out why I had asked to come over and meet his family.

I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Light and I get out of the car, and he leads me up to the door as Mr. Yagami goes to park it. Light (infuriating bastard) puts his arm around my waist and leads me to the door. He opens it up, and I raise my metaphorical mask.

"Light!" a young girl, around age thirteen exclaims happily, running to the door. She takes one look at me and pauses for a second.

"You must be Sayu," I say and smile warmly. As soon as I do this, she breaks into a grin and pries me out of Light's grip.

"And you must be Kurai! Oh I have so much to talk about!" the girl laughs, and I give a small laugh too and let her lead me inside. "Hey mom, come here!" A short, mousy woman (shorter than me!) comes out from the kitchen and smiles warmly at me.

"Oh, you must be Kurai, I've heard so much about you. Light is very fond of you," she says.

"Is that so?" I give a good-natured laugh, wanting to punch Light right where it hurts.

I hear the door shut as Mr. Yagami comes back inside. I look over at him and give a small smile. He simply stared at me like I'm some sort of alien.

You're wondering what's going on, aren't you?

"Supper's almost ready dear," Sachiko Yagami says to her husband. He breaks off eye-contact with me and nods to his wife. Sayu claims me again before dragging me off to another room. She flicks on the TV and sits down next to me.

"So, how'd you meet my brother? I want to hear everything!"

"That's hardly appropriate Sayu," Light says and sits down on my other side.

"Aw, come on!" she pouts, making me laugh.

"Hmm … let's see. I guess it was at the entrance exams to To-Oh," I say to her. "He approached me after them and we had a quick conversation. I guess we were friends after that."

"Until he asked you out," Sayu laughs, and I smile at her. Light's staring at me.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So, what are your favorite celebrities?" she asks me.

This catches me off guard, as I'm not really used to this sort of thing. My mind goes blank for a moment before I blurt out the name that Panda-Face wanted to use as an alias, the name he couldn't use because my cousin knew him as Ryuzaki.

Hideki Ryuga.

She squeals and launches into a little rant on him. Apparently he's her favorite. I find this funny and end up laughing quietly at some of her quirky comments or fan-girlishness. She's just an innocent little kid.

Just a kid.

I feel … sad. If I were to convict Light of being Kira … who knows what it would do to his family? Light, what have you done? You're going to rip their hearts apart. I guess we could always lie and tell them that he was killed by Kira, not executed as a mass-murderer.

Leave their memories of him untarnished.

It's only a small condolence.

It will be hardest on Mr. Yagami. He firmly believes that his son is not Kira, convinced of his innocence. He's said as much before. It will reflect on him as a parent, and rip his son away. That must be the hardest thing for a parent to face.

Truly, Mr. Yagami, I am sorry for you.

Soon enough Mrs. Yagami calls us for supper, and we go to their kitchen table. Dinner goes smoothly. We laugh, we talk, and everything is good.

"So Kurai, you go to the same University as Light?" Mrs. Yagami asks me. I give a nod and a smile.

"That's right. I'm in Journalism."

"And how is that going for you?"

"Really well."

The two of us end up talking about it for a little while. I can tell that she's pretty similar to Mrs. Misora. They share a lot of beliefs. They would be good friends. During the middle of the meal, Sayu asks a question. I have been planning to somehow work it into the conversation; instead she does it for me.

"Hey, so where are you taking Kurai on your next date?" Sayu nudges her brother with her elbow, giving a small smirk.

"I'm not sure," Light smiles lightly, and his mother smiles at us.

"I have an idea," he looks at me, "How about Space-Land?"

"Oh! He took a girl to Space-Land one time! That's a great idea!" Sayu exclaims, and I smile lightly.

"When was that?"

"In December, I think," she laughs lightly.

I give a small, evil smirk that I could probably pass off as humor. Light glances over at me, and for a second I think he looks a little panicked. Finally figure out my reason for coming here?

I feel another set of eyes on me, and I glance over at Mr. Yagami. He's paled dramatically. Are you onto me too? I smile lightly at him before raising my act again.

"I still think it'll be fun," I smile and laugh just like nothing had ever happened.

"I'll drive her home. I have to head back to work anyway," Mr. Yagami excuses himself, and I follow suit. I put up with a small, awkward hug from Light and a bear-hug from Sayu. She's a sweet girl.

"Bye everyone, it was nice to meet you all," I smile and they see me off. I close the door behind me.

Mr. Yagami is waiting in the car, and he turns to look at me when I shut the door.

"You didn't really want to meet my family, did you?"

"Mr. Yagami, you misunderstand me, I really did want to meet them – wonderful they are. It's too bad there aren't more people like that in the world," I give a small sigh and a smile.

"You're still trying to convict Light of being Kira. You're not dating him because you care, your dating him to try and gather information," he says stoically as he starts the car. My smile vanishes, to be replaced by a frown.

"You finally catch on," I say quietly, "Mr. Yagami, I must apologize to you."

"What for?" he says, but through the tone of his voice I can tell that he's upset.

"Your son might actually turn out to be Kira."

"You can't be serious; my son couldn't possibly be Kira!"

I turn to look at the older detective with sad eyes, "Believe me, I wish it were otherwise. On the other hand, I have evidence that he at least came into contact with Naomi Misora and Raye Penbar before their deaths."

Mr. Yagami's eyes widen, and for a second I thought he was going to crash us. "What evidence?"

"Multiple eye-witness reports, ticket receipts, and I've even found a surveillance tape where it shows him talking to Naomi," Mr. Yagami is silent through my entire explanation, but his jaw is clenched. He doesn't want to believe it. He's the sort of person who will deny his son's guilt until the evidence is overwhelming.

I'm truly sorry for you.

The silence stretches for a few minutes, until we see headquarters come into sight. I let out a long sigh and lean back in my seat. "You're a good father Mr. Yagami. You remind me of my own father," my smile fades, "That is, until he killed himself."

So Light had a date when he was on that bus? I guess it makes sense, an excuse to get on the bus to Space-Land without arousing Raye's suspicion. So who was the girl he took along with him?

I probably shouldn't ask Sayu. Besides, it's unlikely that Light would have told her in the first place. No, I need something more than that.

I should start digging. The circles of gossip are not my genre, but Kakushin has that one covered. She told me that there's a girl that could probably find out anything I need. I'll have her look into it. I need to find out who it is.

If I can get this girl to tell me that Light saw Penbar's ID, then we could get a warrant, which would lead us right to his Death Note.

I'm so close.

I can't thank Kakushin enough. She did great in finding out who went with Light to Space-Land. Light had bought both tickets to the bus so that she wouldn't get involved. Some of the witnesses reported that Penbar at least talked to Light.

Now I need that last little bit, the report of someone who was right in the middle of it. I'm off to visit this girl, she was a little surprised when I called her up (phonebooks are amazing) and asked to come over, but she accepted.

So now I'm just walking up to her door. Apparently she arranged it on a day that her parents were off shopping, so she's home alone. I knock on the door, and am greeted by a cheery young woman around my age.

"Come in, you must be Kurai!" she says and lets me in.

"Yeah," I reply.

We get ourselves situated in the living room, and I quickly pull out my coil notebook and the recorder. She stares at me like I'm a psycho before sitting down in a chair close to me.

"You went with Light Yagami to Space-Land on December the 20th," I say, and she gives a small nod.

"Yeah, but why ..?"

"I need you to recount everything that happened on that bus, in the greatest detail you can. Leave nothing out. Also, do you mind if I record our conversation?"