November 5th, 2055
The current prime minister of Japan in the year 2055 sits down with Kato in a comfortable lounge chair, nervously holding a paper with notes in his hands.
"Prime Minister," Sakura Kato smiles in her Kira cloak, "it is always such a pleasure to have celebrities and people with power appear on Sakura TV, especially when they talk to Kira's spokesperson."
The prime minister laughs nervously. "It's not hard to imagine why." He looks to the camera. "Are we live?"
"Anytime the red light is on, we're live, Prime Minister."
The Prime Minister gulps nervously before looking down at his notes. "I'm going to cut the jokes and get right to why I am here." He composes himself by taking a deep breath. Blinking twice, he looks at the camera with a steel gaze. He clears his throat. "This is a message I wish to make to England and its military allies." He looks down at the paper. "We do not want a war with the world. On behalf of the people of Japan and as the Prime Minister, we are formally asking that war will not be waged on our country. Japan may have a self-defense force but it doesn't stand a chance against multiple countries at once. We do not desire any unnecessary deaths on our hands."
Kato holds a hand up. "One second." She turns to her assistant standing just out of the camera's view. "Are we global?"
The assistant nods.
"Excellent." She turns back. "Please continue, Prime Minister."
The Prime Minister clears his throat once again as he regains his train of thought. "The country of Japan will not take action against Kira if he deems it necessary to kill people to protect Japan and that is Japan's official stance. Let the record show that it was Brigadier Hydra who declared war on Kira and the only ones who should be participating in this conflict are Kira and Hydra. Again, we wish for the allies of Hydra to not attack our country. If our people are in danger, then we will take drastic measures to defend ourselves. We will defend ourselves to the final breath." He folds his paper. "And that is all I have to say about this conflict between Kira and Hydra." He stares into the camera hard. "Hydra, Royal Marine, allies of Hydra and the Royal Marines, I hope you heard my message loud and clear and made the right choice."
England
Smiling as he turns off the television, Hydra turns to his subordinates in the room. "A formal request? Funny, because at this point, formal requests should be extinct."
"It seems like the Prime Minister was reciting something from a note," a captain points out. "Chances are, Kira wrote that message and wants him to act as a messenger. Kira doesn't want our allies to go after his country."
"But it is going to happen." Hydra smiles behind his mask. "After all, the king of England was 'killed' by Kira and the leaders of our allied countries will want payback. They're not going to take this kind of stuff lightly. World leaders haven't given me a blank check yet to order my marines around so there are a couple more events we need to manipulate."
"Like?"
Hydra tugs on his cufflinks, adjusting them before the bird symbol on them is inverted.
"We're going to make it look like Kira is going to continue to oppose us. If I play my cards right, we'll fake the deaths of more world leaders; their names and faces are public information, after all. Once that happens, the stand-ins for the world leaders will want revenge against Kira and give us a blank check. We'll do everything we can and we'll invade Japan and persecute everyone there. Our reign will bring Kira's reign to an end and more importantly, delay the inevitable World War 3 between North America, Europe, and Asia by several more decades." He looks to his subordinates. "Remember, everything we do is to prevent World War 3 from breaking out sooner rather than later. If we have to kill innocent people to do so, then so be it."
The captain stands up. "I don't know how I feel about this, brigadier."
"There will be pain and suffering but hey, as long as it's not us, then who cares?" His masked face radiates a smiling aura. "Kira has killed hundreds of thousands of people; very few militaries or governments can compare without the use of a nuke. Trust me, without Kira around, the death toll will decrease and there will be more humans on planet Earth."
"But innocent people?"
Brig. Hydra plays with his cufflinks. "Cap, are you prepared to do whatever it takes to win in a war?"
"Always, brigadier."
"Good, then sacrifices must be made for the greater good. That is what we're going to do. You want to put out a fire, you set off a bigger fire right beside it."
"But what will Kira do?" the captain wonders aloud. "After all, Kira has been reigning over the world for almost fifty years; he's not going to let his power evade him so easily. He's going to do whatever it takes to keep his power."
"Including killing innocent people," Brig. Hydra finishes. "It's public knowledge that Kira kills anyone after him, regardless if they're good or bad, so in a way, he's no different from us." He continues to play with his cufflinks. "We have to have the upper hand, no matter what. Arrange for another assassination attempt; get more world leaders to fake their deaths and hide them in our bunker. As far as everyone knows, Kira and Japan want peace but if we make it look like Kira is still killing innocent people, especially world leaders, unprovoked, then they'll call for blood and we'll have more support on our side for when we invade Japan. After all, this is a different Kira from the one seven years ago and most people know that so they'll be a little iffy to trust this limey bastard."
"Right away, sir," the captain nods before picking up his phone and making a few calls.
The Yagami Residence
Spinning in her chair playfully, Rain looks over to her brothers.
"So, now that they got our message, what happens now?" Angel asks.
Archer laughs. "Now, there's going to be more people faking their deaths."
"Archer's right," Rain agrees. "As terrifying as it is to admit, Archer is right. Hydra is hell-bent on waging war with Kira as a way to delay World War 3 from breaking out prematurely. He's using us as a scapegoat to diffuse tension between NATO countries and things are only going to escalate from here. I'm not sure what the king of England thinks of this but we're going to have to escalate our tactics ourselves." She folds her arms over her chest. "If I were Hydra, I would make it look like Kira is attacking us unprovoked, that way, I would look like I'm in the right and Kira is in the wrong. War is expensive so if I wanted to invade Japan, I would get all the backing from other countries. Getting them on our side is crucial to invading Japan." She closes her eyes, sighing heavily. She opens them, looking at her brothers with a blank look. "I would make it look like Kira is the overarching enemy in this conflict and... to do that, I would make it look like Kira is killing off all world leaders, make it look like Kira is controlling them into stopping conflict by killing innocent people."
She snaps her fingers. "But that's not going to happen. After all, we plan to incite a war within the Royal Marines before they invade."
"And how do we do that?"
Archer looks up, smiling at his brother. "I figured out a way we could turn this in a favor, baby brother."
"I'm older than you, duh."
"Whatever."
"We kill the Prime Minister," Rain says. "We make it look like British Royal Marines killed him. This way... it'll make Hydra and his marines look bad."
Angel gasps. "We're going to kill the Prime minister?"
"No, just a double. We're going to have someone wearing a Royal Marine outfit invade the Prime Minister's office and pop two bullets in his chest. Once this incident becomes national and international, then it'll make Hydra look bad." She scoffs. "Sending his marines to kill an innocent person when he declared his target to be Kira will make him look horrible in the public eye." She stands up. "Afterward, with the death of the prime minister, Kira will make a public announcement and declare that Kira will give Hydra one more chance to back off. We'll also reveal that Kira did not kill the prime minister."
"What if people don't believe that the prime minister is dead?" Angel asks.
"Then it'll cast a shadow of doubt," Archer realizes.
Angel's eyes widen. "And in turn, it'll cast a shadow of doubt on the king of England being dead and they'll be more likely to distrust Hydra."
Rain nods. "Exactly. Hydra wants a war, we'll give him one."
"Cold war," Archer shivers.
"The Kira Cold War," Angel jokes.
"The Kira Cold War." Rain chuckles nonchalantly. "Hilarious." She spins in her chair. "Alright, let's get to work." Rain spins in her chair and grabs a caramel apple. She tosses it into the air, where Gintik Hagmay catches it. "In the mood to do something for your dear children, Daddy?"
Gintik Hagmay laughs. "Sure, as long as you add more caramel to my apple next time."
"You will get moderately applied caramel to your caramel apples and you will like it," Rain snarks.
"Whatever." Gintik Hagmay takes another bite of his caramel apple.
November 6th
Prime Minister's Office
Sitting at his desk with several security officers standing guard outside the door, the prime minister looks over several documents in his hand, sweating as the stress from Sakura TV sits in his stomach. Despite following orders from Kira, he can't help but suspect that Kira's entity is still in the room with him. Looking around anxiously, he closes his eyes, trying to focus on the task at hand, but the sickening sensation in his stomach remains.
A few minutes later, the window creaks, nearly making the prime minister jump in his seat before calming down. Looking over, he gasps silently upon seeing a blue notebook flying through the window.
It was just like the day before with Kira giving instructions. Kira is giving more instructions.
The floating notebook opens to the first page.
'Are you willing to do what is necessary to win?' the notebook read.
Gasping loudly, sweat pours down the prime minister's face like a storm as he stares at the floating notebook with dilated eyes. The notebook shakes vigorously after he refuses to answer, making his heart skip a beat.
"Y-yes," he gulps, "I-I am."
The invisible entity flips through several pages before stopping on a page in the middle of the notebook.
'Good. To win this war with Hydra, we need the world to believe you have been assassinated. It is time for your double to die in your place, Prime Minister.'
The prime minister blinks rapidly, carefully reading over the sentences to ensure he didn't miss anything. Rereading the sentence, the prime minister composes himself.
Flipping through several pages, the prime minister reads over several instructions for him to follow. After the pages are torn out by the invisible entity, they land on his desk. Looking over them, he quickly gathers his things before making a few phone calls.
November 7th
With everything in place, a man resembling the prime minister sits in the same office as the real prime minister and nervously taps his fingertips. Waiting patiently for everything to fall into place, he takes out his phone and begins playing on it. A few seconds later, a white man wearing a suit walks into the office with a suitcase in hand. Planting the suitcase on the desk, he opens it takes several gun parts out of several secret compartments, and begins assembling a gun. The fake prime minister closes his eyes after the gunman puts together a sniper rifle and-
BANG!
The prime minister slumps back into his chair.
The gunman pauses before turning around, and exiting the office as security rounds up and corners him in the hallway. They quickly take him into custody and have medics move into the room to secure the prime minister.
The prime minister continues to slump against the chair, eyes dilating and becoming wide as UFOs. Bleeding from the chest, the prime minister's hands fall from the arms off the chairs and dangle lifelessly. The medic picks up a gunshell and places it in his pocket.
With Rain
"I'll see you later, sweetie," Sei says as he kisses Rain on the lips.
Rain sighs into the kiss before pushing him back. "I'll see you later, Sei."
"Oh, and, say hi to ArchAngel for me."
"I will. And I'll make sure to tell Archer not to beat you up the next time you meet."
"I mean, we wouldn't want Archer to hurt himself, right?"
"Right." Rain pats him on the back before waving him off.
After being quite the gentleman in dropping Rain off from their date, Rain lets herself into her apartment and waits patiently for Archer and Angel to get home. While waiting, she completes her college homework. As she bites into a cookie and creme ice cream cone from her freezer, she switches on the news as background noise. That's when she gets the report she had been hoping for.
"-Sadly, no motive was found behind the attack," a news reporter goes on. "While the assassin's identity is unknown, what the police have reported is that the bullet fired from the gun is standard ammunition used in the sniper rifle known as the L115A1, a rifle used primarily in the British Royal Marines-"
Rain turns the TV off, no longer needing to hear anymore. Her hair and eyes turn gray as she is stuck in deep thought.
Archer and Angle return home a few moments later holding several bags of apples in their hands along with ingredients to make caramel apples.
"We saw the news," Archer smiled, "pretty awesome stuff."
"Movie-worthy action, yeah," Rain snarks. "Took you guys long enough."
"Traffic," Angel says. "Pedestrian traffic, ten times worse than vehicle traffic."
"Uh-oh, Archer, look out; middle brother Angel is starting to snark again."
Archer laughs. "Ooh, I'm so scared."
The three siblings reunite on the couch with Gintik Hagmay hovering over them.
"So, do you think the world bought it?" Angel asks. "You know, with the prime minister dead and everything?"
"People will believe anything, especially if Kira tells them to." Rain looks over at Gintik Hagmay, seeing his glare. "Someone want to make Dad his caramel apples? Not it."
"Not it," Angel says.
Archer groans. "Lazy." He gets off the couch and heads into the kitchen, preparing some caramel apples for their shinigami father.
"I did what you told me to do," Gintik Hagmay said, "I did it and I want more caramel apples now."
"Hold not your skeletal panties, Dad, you'll get it."
Rain reaches under the couch and pulls out her notebook. She flips to the most recent entry in her Death Note.
"Our prime minister double is dead and the British gunman will soon be dead from a hit-and-run within twenty-three days." She slaps the newspaper shut. "It's time for the next phase of the plan."
November 8th
Rain grabs the remote and flips to Sakura TV. She puts her feet up and plants them on the ottoman in front of her. "Someone pass the popcorn."
Archer reaches over and produces two buckets of popcorn. Handing one to his older sister, he shares the second bucket with his identical twin brother.
Kira's spokesperson, Sakura Kato, looks into the camera with a smile, tugging her cloak around her neck tightly.
"I am happy," Kato admits with a wide smile, "to make this next announcement to you all, and this announcement comes from Kira himself. And man, does our god have a lot to say about what happened with the prime minister yesterday." Looking at the notes in her hand, she crumbles them before tossing them over her head.
"Brig. Hydra, this is a worldwide broadcast and we want everyone to know what you've done." She glares while keeping her smile plastered on her face. "You killed our prime minister. You can try and deny it all you want but we all know the truth: you provoked us and declared war on us like a glory hound. A corner-cutting glory hound. You sent an assassin to come and kill our beloved prime minister for no reason at all and yet, you claimed to only want to wage war on Kira. Something like this isn't going to fly now or ever. And Kira wanted to clear something up about a misconception Hydra incited within all of us: Kira did not kill the king of England."
Kato rests her arm on her armchair. "I'll tell you why this isn't a hoax." She reaches into her cloak and pulls out a radio and a tape. Placing it on the table, she inserts the tape before playing it.
A distorted voice comes through. "I am Kira." A few seconds of silence passed before any more could be heard. "I am your god and I am here to offer safety to my people and retribution to my enemies. Specifically, Hydra." Silence. "Brig. Hydra, if you want a war, I'll give you. Oh yes, I'll be more than happy to give you a war but I do NOT appreciate you framing me for crimes. I do NOT appreciate you making it look like I killed the king of England. I also do NOT appreciate you attacking my government for an unprovoked attack. First, you frame me for the king's death and then you make it look like you want revenge by sending one of your men to kill my prime minister. I REFUSE to let any more of my people die. The next you target one of my people, government or not, there will be consequences. The same can be said for when a world leader dies and you frame me for their deaths. Oh, and to my fellow followers in England, if you're willing to lend a helping hand to Kira, I encourage you to find evidence that the king of England is alive. My hands are tied and I won't show the specifics of my power to the public so the responsibility falls to you.
"Oh, and Brig. Hydra... I'll see you soon. No matter how many heads you regenerate after getting decapitated, I'll keep cutting them, no matter how long it takes. Last chance: end the war between us before it begins."
The tape ends and Rain turns off the TV.
"Nice," Gintik Hagmay laughs, "now it looks like Brig. Hydra is a lying, scheming wolf trying to make himself look good."
"That's right," Rain agreed. "If we're lucky, Hydra will back off but I doubt that will happen." She stands up. "Let's hope that our followers in England will heed our advice to find evidence of the king's survival. As soon as it becomes public that the king is still alive, the world leaders will be forced to do something about Hydra. Once that happens, Hydra and his Royal Marines will be ordered to stand down and boom; the war is over before it begins."
"That's assuming he'll listen to reason and not try and kill us," Archer points out, taking a handful of popcorn.
"Right." Rain closes her eyes for a few seconds. Opening them, her hair and eyes turn gray.
"Hydra, this is your last chance," Rain whispers. "Give up or there will be consequences."