![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fandom: Death Note
Rating: I'm gonna go with 'Teen'.
Pairing: Beyond/Kyoko
Warning: Real Name Spoiler Alert.
Just as Light believes he has the situation under control again, a signal originates from Task Force Headquarters, heading for an unknown destination. Beyond is aware this means that very shortly the other Wammy’s orphans will be involving themselves in the Kira Case, hoping to catch the murderer that killed their beloved role model, and believes that this foreknowledge gives him time to prepare.
“Raito! We’ve got a problem!” Matsuda’s panicked voice came over the intercom, calling frantically from his phone.
Soichiro stiffened, obviously thinking that the young police officer had discovered that Rue Ryuzaki was Kira after all. Ignoring the reactions of the others, Raito quietly and calmly thumbed on the device to disguise his voice and asked, “What’s wrong, Matsui?”
“Rue-kun’s been kidnapped!” he wailed loudly. Suddenly, the whole task force sat up.
He heard Aizawa mutter under his breath, “It’s probably too much to hope for that this was random and not Kira-related…”
Raito Yagami felt a shudder go down his spine in shock as Ryuk, once again, started laughing. He was really starting to get sick of the laugh of a Shinigami. Sometimes it was loud enough he couldn’t even hear himself think. “Light, things are getting interesting again,” the Reaper observed. Trying to keep his voice under control, he asked, “What?” in a low, dangerous tone of voice that promised whoever was behind this would pay. Probably with their lives.
“Rue-kun’s been kidnapped,” Matsuda repeated helplessly. “They just took him, and…and I couldn’t stop them. I’m a failure, no help to you guys. I should just resign…”
“Matsui!” Raito bellowed at the top of his lungs, allowing the rage and powerlessness filter out to what they all thought privately was the least helpful member of the investigation. “We have few enough people on the Kira Case as it is, and I absolutely forbid you to walk out on Rue now! I expect you to tell us what happened as well as you can, and to do what I say to help get him back. You’re not useless, but if you quit now and allow one of your best friends to die because you didn’t have the guts to stay in and try to save him, then I will not only call you an ineffectual detective but one of the most worthless human beings I’ve ever met!”
A pause. Raito could imagine Matsuda stumble backward with only the force of his words, the tears and sweat mixing as the young police officer poured out his misery. He could feel the astonished looks of the other task force members on his back, but only the equivalent of a slap would get Touta to focus on the important thing-getting Rue Ryuzaki back. It might be Kira-related, so they couldn’t ignore it. Besides the fact that he and Matsuda thought of the younger Ryuzaki as a good friend, someone they couldn’t just abandon. They would retrieve him from his captors, no matter what. Then a hiccupping chuckle came over. “Guess I…deserve that…” he managed through his tears. “Okay, L, let’s do this.” He sounded a little more like his normal enthusiastic self. “I was walking Rue-kun back to his apartment. I’ve got a full report of what happened earlier in the day sort of written up, and I’ll bring that. A woman on a motorcycle was lost, and I went back to help her and give her directions, when…” his voice choked up slightly, “…a car drove up, and there was this smoke grenade I think, and I lost Rue in the confusion. When I finally stopped coughing, I looked up and saw a raven-haired kid slump down in the back of a car…”
Raito interrupted him. “How do you know it was Ryuzaki-kun?”
“Because!” Matsuda sounded defensive. “He’s pretty distinctive. I mean, he looks like…” he stopped. Probably not good to speak about L when talking to L. Might be suspicious.
“He has a point,” Mogi acknowledged.
“Anyway, I kind of blanked out, and when I came to I was wandering around downtown aimlessly.” That sounded somewhat serious.
“Um…Matsuda, are you okay?” Raito asked, sounding concerned. ‘What is going on?’
“Oh, yeah. I think I was drugged. By the blonde lady. I’ve got a somewhat swollen hole in my neck anyway. And I don’t think it’s a mosquito bite…”
Oh. The woman was in on it, a distraction. “What did the blonde woman look like?” Was it Misa, unlikely as that was? “Can you describe the car or the driver? Is Rue answering his phone?”
Matsuda answered sluggishly, and now that he listened the words were a bit slurred. So drugging was sounding more and more likely. “Uh, no. I’m not a complete idiot. I did try his phone first. It’s turned off. It won’t even ring.” Damn it, of course it was turned off. That way the police couldn’t track it. “Uh, the woman? Um, she was…pretty? Long yellowish blonde hair, leather, motorcycle? Blue eyes. I think. Pretty voice, normal woman range. Nice motorcycle. Didn’t see much of the driver, except he or she was possibly wearing an eyepatch.” Raito raised his eyebrow. An eyepatch? “And the car was…black? Maybe? Or red? Or blue?” In other words, either the smoke hadn’t cleared out, or he’d been drugged before he’d seen the car pull out.
Kira sighed, drumming his fingers on the desk. “I don’t suppose you were lucky enough to catch either license plate number.” That at least might help, but he didn’t think their luck was that good.
“…No….” Matsuda instead of sounding like the excited, helpful dog, now sounded like a kicked puppy, and Raito couldn’t blame him.
“Okay. Just stay there. We’ll come and get you. And then we’ll find the people who did this, if we have to tear Tokyo apart with our bare hands. And we should probably avoid involving the NPA…if Kira had been getting his information from the police, then it only makes sense not to give him any information we can help giving him. Kira is not justice. The kidnappers need to be brought to trial.” He snuck a glance. His father looked alarmed. As usual, Mogi’s expression hadn’t changed a bit.
Another out of breath chuckle. “Where do I sign up, Raito-kun?”
If it hadn’t been such a serious situation, the young L might laugh at the words. Matsuda’s usual attitude could be summed up in those words, but they weren’t said in the usual “I’ll do whatever’s needed, and someday someone will notice I’m useful!” manner. He was serious, even slightly grim. Then again, he probably wouldn’t be tempted to laugh at anything Matsuda said if it wasn’t a serious situation.
“You already have,” Raito signed off. “Mogi stays here.” Who could have been responsible? Truthfully speaking, no one knew about the Death Note but the task force. No one but they knew who L was. Since he was Kira, the savior of the world couldn’t have wanted him dead. Whoever they were, Rue would be safe and sound if Light Yagami had anything to say about it, and the kidnappers would die with the simple flick of a pen, their names written next to the others that deserved so badly to die.
Beyond gasped, eyes flicking open. Wherever he’d been, it had been very dark and very scary. His vision flashed red for a few seconds as he gasped and wriggled, a fish out of water. He was caught unawares, and for once in a long while, he was terrified. Terrified that the evil him would come out of the dark and eat his soul, take over his body, and kill to sate its endless hunger. That was a Japanese sort of idea, right? Only fitting it should happen in Japan.
A rushing sound, as if blood was filling his ears. He was desperate. His hands were chained behind his back, and he was in some sort of a chair. In what was probably a warehouse. With little light. He kept breathing (barely), kept flailing. He wanted to go hide in his nice safe little corner, curl up, and disappear, at least for a while. But nowhere in this warehouse was safe. He was trapped.
A part of him realized that he was having his first true hysterics, in which he would either pass out, hurt himself, or hurt someone else. He hoped it was the first option.
Then a loud crack, almost like bones breaking, shattered his consciousness into a million little pieces, and he froze. Oblivion sounded so good right now.
“So it is you. We couldn’t be sure from a distance.” The voice was as Beyond had remembered it…insolent, somewhat young, middle range (for a guy, anyway).
“You haven’t changed…a bit.” Beyond managed, feeling out of breath. Maybe a few of his ribs were bruised. “Always…the bully…at Wammy’s.”
He looked up to see a somewhat shadowy figure burst into laughter, taking a moment to snap off another satisfying chunk of chocolate. “And you were the wild card. Still, it’s almost as if we’re having a Wammy’s reunion here in Tokyo. Could have picked a better location, though. Like Vegas. Ah, well, at least that little weirdo albino sheep isn’t here to mess things up.”
“He will be…soon,” the captive wheezed. “And anyway…can’t have reunion…without L.”
The figure froze. Then a guy in a close-fitting leather catsuit rushed him, squeezing his chin with a death grip that hurt, feminine as the hands looked, forcing his grey eyes up to meet cold blue ones. Mello had always looked up to L, and the news that his mentor was dead must have hit him hard. So it’d still be a touchy subject.
“You’re just a two-bit loser that Roger turned up out of the garbage heap. A guy who fails so badly at his own life, he has to imitate someone else’s. Failed at that, too, didn’t you? No wonder L didn’t care much about you one way or the other…you were never very impressive.” As if to emphasize his point, Mello broke off another chunk of chocolate from the foil-wrapped bar in his hand, letting the sound echo off the walls like a thousand bells.
Beyond’s eyes flashed, his lips pulling back from his teeth in an absolute snarl of hatred, spitting out the words as if he had all the breath in the world, ignoring how painful it was. The anger dulled the pain. “Don’t go there. Yes, I’ve never killed before, and looking in your eyes I can see you have. Yes, I’ve tried to fight the darkness within. Yes, I’m the one tied up, drugged, and you’re the one in control. But if you push me too far, you will die in ways you cannot imagine in your darkest dreams. I will smear your blood all over the walls and leave a pretty little message for your darling Matty-kun.”
Mello actually stepped back, chocolate slipping slightly out of his hands at the ferocity in Beyond Birthday’s tone, before he smiled again. “Well, as long as we understand each other, I figure we’re in a position to deal with each other. Am I right?”
A tightened jaw. A nod.
“Actually, Matt’s here. He’s the one who pointed you out from across the street. We watched you for a bit, and then we decided we’d ask you a few questions about why you were here, so…we put this little surprise together. Truce. You don’t say anything about L, and I don’t call you Backup. Are we clear on that?”
Several deep, choking breaths, then Beyond nodded. “Couldn’t have just…said ‘hey, how’s it going’ on the street?”
That provoked an amused smile. “Come on. Surrounded by the Japanese Police? They may be incompetent, but they’re not stupid. Not all of them anyway. Can’t show that we know each other.”
That had been meant as a sort of joke. But then, Mello had never really had much of a sense of humor. “Where’s Matt?” he gasped out, coughing out what was probably some blood. He had internal damage. Great. Just what he needed. Ah well. If it had been too bad, he’d already be dead by now, so at least that was…something.
That provoked a grin. Somebody to lessen the punishment, perhaps? Mello tended to think anyone besides him was a wimp. “He’s upstairs. I’m not sure whether he knows or suspects I’m down here, but I wanted to have a talk with you my way before he got down.”
“Can’t…handle the blood?” Beyond half-taunted. This place was doing well at bringing out the worst in him. Then again, he had the theory that being kidnapped, tied up, hurt, stuck in a dimly lit warehouse, and interrogated by Mello would do its best at bringing out the worst in anyone.
“He’s shot people before,” the blonde stated matter-of-factly, tearing off another crackling chunk of his favorite treat. The taunting half-smile and the look in the blue eyes told him everything he needed to know.
“Liar,” Beyond sang. “The worst he’s done is hang out with you.”
Mello nodded. “I wondered if you’d catch that. But then, you always were the king at lying, weren’t you?”
“I did try telling the truth once. I’ll say it again. I know your real name. I know Matt’s real name. If I wanted, at any time I could tell the guy I suspect to be Kira. I won’t unless you push me.” A good, honest threat. But he doubted he ever would. No one deserved to die by Kira.
Extremely white teeth paused over the chocolate, as blue eyes stared at him, for the first time scared, as much as he’d hate to admit it. He swallowed. “No, you’re lying again.”
“Mihael. Mail. Do I need to go on?” He shivered at the look of absolute fury in the blonde’s eyes, right before a vicious fist made contact with his shoulder, which hadn’t hurt until now. It seemed dislocated. He groaned in agony.
“I might deserve it. Matt doesn’t. You get him killed, and I don’t care if I’m already dead, I will come back to torture and then kill you. Got it?” He’d tucked his chocolate away somewhere, both fists ready to batter him into oblivion. Weakly, he nodded.
“Warning…I’m not…only one. With the Eyes. And there’s at least one on Kira’s team, so…if you don’t show your faces, you’re not in jeopardy. If you’re seen, you’ll probably be killed.” He wouldn’t have bothered mentioning it ages ago. He wasn’t certain what changed his mind, why he was suddenly willing to help prevent death if he could possibly help.
The furious eyes facing him narrowed. “What are you playing, Beyond?”
“I don’t care about winning or losing.” That wasn’t true, but if Kira lost to any of the Wammy’s kids, it was a sort of victory. Especially if his actions helped bring that about. “I just want Kira to pay with his life.”
The feminine blonde froze for a moment, eyes searching his. Then a slow, predatory smile spread across his face, and the chocolate was out again. “I can understand that, I suppose. So go on, tell me. I only know what Matt was able to hack out of the mostly nonexistent server, which wasn’t much.”
Just then, footsteps came down the stairs, which Beyond hadn’t been able to see. So much for Shinigami Eyes seeing in the dark. Somehow, he’d expected them to be able to penetrate the darkness, thought that was the natural habitat of Reapers. Mello froze, then scooted back from him. A little.
Beyond didn’t need to see to identify who was coming, though, from the pings, whistles, booms, and other assorted gaming noises coming from the figure, who was able to avoid bumping into anything even though his attention was firmly fixed on his hands and the bright-ish console within them. “Hey, Matt,” he acknowledged, exhausted. He was ready to fall asleep, but he was sure Mello would not be happy about that arrangement.
The redhead glanced up when he got close, the Nintendo screen lighting up his face enough so that Beyond could see the familiar hair, goggles, and cigarette dangling from the mouth. “You’re wearing contacts again, aren’t you?” was all the gaming boy said as he surveyed Beyond’s eyes before returning to the game.
Kyoko took a deep breath. She knew she probably wasn’t supposed to be at the headquarters, wasn’t supposed to involve herself any further in the case. But she needed to know. She hadn’t heard from her boyfriend all day, and it was driving her crazy with worry. He’d almost killed himself, after all. Her fear was probably justified. So she walked up to the building where Kira lurked and rang the high-tech equivalent of a doorbell.
Eventually, someone answered. “Hello?” They sounded completely confused. She didn’t blame them. No one was supposed to know about this place.
“Um, hello. You probably don’t know me. I’m Nakasato Kyoko. And I’ve been paying attention to my boyfriend for a while, because he’s cute. And I’ve seen him come here sometimes. And I haven’t heard from him in a whole day, and I was just wondering…I mean, there’s not another woman in the picture, is there? I mean, he’s not the type to cheat, not really, but when he ignores his phone for the first twenty seven times I call, and he’s not at his apartment but at some really fancy hotel looking place…you understand…” She didn’t need much help to act mousy and worried.
“…No…the only woman here is the girlfriend of a friend of his. Who would probably kill anyone who tried to come between her and her precious boyfriend. You don’t have anything to worry about.” That last statement sounded false. She didn’t know why exactly, but he was lying. She wouldn’t have noticed that weeks ago, but even a little while in the shadowy, somewhat spy-like world Rue inhabited taught her how to better read people and their reactions, when they’d always been such a mystery before.
“Well…could I at least talk to him, please? I mean, I know I may be just a girl with little experience overreacting, but…I love him…and I’d be a lot calmer about everything if I could just talk to him.” The long silence told him that wasn’t going to happen. Was it because they just weren’t going to let her…or was it that she couldn’t? Rue said that they had only vaguely suspected him. They weren’t interrogating him, were they?
“He’s busy. If you come back later, you can talk to him.” This one seemed to be reluctant to talk. About anything. What in the world did that mean?
“…I don’t want to talk for long. I just want to know if he’s okay. I’m not sure if you know this, but he suffers from depression, and I’m kind of worried about his safety.” She felt tempted to try to run away and stop making a fuss. Before she’d met Be—no, Rue, she reminded herself, she probably would have. Now she was almost sure that something was wrong, and she wasn’t willing to leave it at this.
“You can’t. I’ll tell him you stopped by, though.” That was as final as it could get, at least in this man’s book. He had softened, just slightly, meaning that he was sympathetic. She found it odd that she suddenly noticed all of this, but she wasn’t about to complain. Apparently this was his best offer.
‘Why?’ she wondered. Certainly the tower was probably one of the most secure locations in the city, considering it had been built by L…but they could let him down for two minutes to talk to her, couldn’t they? And she was less sure about her conclusion of interrogation, either. The Task Force was trying to catch Kira. That meant that they would probably use sterner measures than the regular police force, so ignoring a person’s rights wasn’t altogether out of the question. Like spies. But she caught a note of worry in the man’s voice that didn’t support that idea. ‘Could he have gone missing?’ Her heart jumped into her throat at that thought, but decided it wasn’t out of the question.
She smiled sadly, hoping they had some sort of camera that could catch that. “Well, thank you, I suppose. Tell him I love him very much, and I hope to see him, if not tomorrow, then at school.” On a whim, she bowed toward the door and left. He wasn’t answering his phone, and the police therefore couldn’t trace it. Neither, probably, could the task force. That meant that they probably had no idea where he was either.
Should she go looking for him? He might be in trouble, and need help. No matter what he needed, she was ready and very willing to provide assistance in whatever he needed. On the other hand, perhaps he didn’t want to be found. She had watched several movies where the girlfriend led the evil forces to her boyfriend, who would otherwise be safe. She didn’t want to be said stupid girlfriend. She had the feeling that Ryuzaki-kun would be much happier if she just trusted him and left it alone. If he died, though, just because she hadn’t had the guts to involve herself…
She clenched her hands and lashed out half-heartedly at the nearest chain link fence. “Rue-kun, you are the most infuriating man I have ever met, and you are my boyfriend! Is this how love works?”
She took a deep breath to steady herself and resolved to go to the nearest café to order some green tea or perhaps a flavored water to calm herself down and allow her brain to think again. She might not be the genius Yagami Raito was, but her scores at To-Oh were not terrible, and she was smart. Just not as smart as most of the students. Still, she knew enough to take a step back and actually think about the situation, something she wasn’t sure Yagami had done as he had obviously rushed off. Coming up with a plan and examining what she knew about Rue was important. She could think about where she would be most likely to find Rue Ryuzaki and then decide whether or not searching for him was a good idea.
He probably would not be found in an area with many people. She had noticed he had appeared to hate crowds. He probably would not be found shopping either. As much as he hated it, it would probably be one of the last places anyone would look, so would be an optimal hiding place, except for the fact that he had obviously not enjoyed it. He had seemed anxious, even angry, and thus would avoid such areas. He would not want to draw attention to himself, even by accident, and losing his temper would certainly have that effect. Besides, he’d seemed slightly paranoid, although for someone hunting Kira, that was probably justified. He might think the Task Force could tap into any camera they pleased, so he would avoid places with cameras. Which included the trains.
He might be in a public park, a small store, or any one of the warehouses, high rises, and other such buildings scattered over the expanse of Tokyo.
That might not lessen the searching area much, but when she added the idea that such areas would need to be relatively quiet and/or empty, that cut down on where Rue might be found considerably. In Tokyo, space was at a premium. People were crammed in everywhere they could fit. Finding somewhere without others around would be difficult. She only partially understood the concept of solitude, since only in recent years had the younger generations of Japanese begun placing emphasis on the individual, rather than the group, but guessed that Rue was definitely from one of the
Western nations that glorified each separate person. His behavior—calm when only a few others were around, uneasy in a crowd—confirmed this idea. If she could find the few places in Tokyo that fit this description, she would probably find Rue.
Even if his disappearance wasn’t his idea (her jaw clenched at the thought, and she attempted not to cry as she took another sip) he would be most likely to be held in a location where people were unlikely to ask questions. Either the bad parts of the city or a quiet place where any interrogations were unlikely to be disturbed would be ideal for this goal.
Telling herself repeatedly that crying would not aid her Ryuzaki-kun, Kyoko then attempted to make one of the most difficult decisions in her life. Should she try to find her boyfriend or not?
Raito was furious once he figured out that he and the rest of the task force were driving around aimlessly. Matsuda was just as helpful as he sounded on the phone, and twice as determined to catch the ones who had taken his new best friend Rue. Unfortunately, they had no leads. He was going to call Misa and ask her to check Matsuda’s description of the blonde against the illegal online lists of criminals that had popped up after the major TV stations had quit broadcasting news on criminal activity under his orders. A similar call to Mogi would see whether any non-criminals matched the description, no matter what country they came from. The chance that either method might give him the identity of Rue’s attackers was slim, but any chance was better than none at all.
Then the phone rang. His heart jumped, but he smoothly answered it, clicking the button to disguise his voice. They’d be lucky indeed if this was a ransom call from the kidnappers. “Yes?” he asked.
“…I’m…really not sure what to do about this situation, L.” Mogi. He felt a creeping disappointment, but merely cleared his throat in acknowledgment to continue.
“Rue’s girlfriend came to the Headquarters and was pretty persistent. I think she’s gathered that he’s missing by now.”
Raito put his head in his hands, growling in frustration. Dealing with this anymore was a headache.
Mogi hesitated just slightly before continuing with further bad news. “That’s not all, though. Rue has been officially listed as a missing person by the Japanese Police.”
Ryuk began chuckling again, earning a death glare from Raito. “What?!” How could anyone know about this? He’d been planning on keeping it within the task force. No need for anyone else to know.
“Yeah, I know. It’s bad. Apparently an American told them, and the FBI are now offering their assistance to help find him.” …the…the Federal Bureau of Investigation?
“How do they know? What do they get out of it anyway? Why do they want Rue?” If he didn’t check himself, he was ready to begin tearing his hair out. He took several deep breaths to calm himself down, only to hear the equivalent of ‘I don’t know’ from the quietest member of the task force.
Then a thought occurred to him, and he sucked in his breath quickly. “Mogi…who knows that Rue was L’s brother?”
Basically, a shrug. “We have no way of knowing that. The Americans are claiming that he’s a citizen, but I’m pretty sure that’s not true.”
Raito’s mind was racing. Other countries might be frustrated with the lack of progress on the investigation so far. Enough that they might be thinking about doing a little research of their own. If they were aware that Rue was L’s brother, then they might believe that he knew more about the case than he was telling and attempt to get such information out of him. Some might even be ruthless. If they did not know that Rue had spent quite a while in an asylum and he had his brother had never been really close, they would try to find out what L and the task force knew and why they weren’t making any progress anymore. And some of them might be pretty ruthless about their information-gathering. …and this occurred AFTER the mysterious transmission. If only they’d been able to track it! At least then they’d have a better idea of who was probably behind this whole thing. If only they were able to intercept it, then they’d know what information was suddenly available to…whoever the intended recipient was.
Sitting here with ‘if onlys’ wasn’t going to help Rue, though. They had to take action. Well…with the help of the police and the FBI, they might be able to find Rue. They’d have a lot more help to search in any case. But they’d have to be careful. Who knew how the kidnappers would react if they felt cornered?
“Okay, fine. Dad, you go to the NPA and see what’s going on there. Take this,” he handed a bugging device to Soichiro, who accepted it with a nod. That was one of the perks of being L now…his father rarely questioned him anymore. Besides, it only made sense that he’d want to listen to what the FBI had to say, since they were upsetting his plans.
“Matsuda, I know you want to get out there and hurt these people, but you can’t do that unless you find them first. You and Mogi will sift through who that woman you saw might be, as well as information on where they might have taken him. We might be able to catch the getaway car on traffic cameras, or have eyewitnesses, so look at that.” If Matsuda could close his eyes and appear on the other end of the city to get started on his job right away, he would. Then again, if he was capable of such a thing, he’d be in the middle of the action right now, getting Rue to safety and beating up anyone who wanted to stop him, or who dared to kidnap him in the first place.
Matsuda nodded energetically. “Anything. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get him back, and if that means be patient, I can do that too.”
“Aizawa should talk to his contacts in the police force. Find out what exactly is going on, and see if any of them can assist in any way…talking to people on the street, that sort of thing,” he continued. They all needed to help in some fashion. They needed to have the best shot possible at getting Rue back…unharmed. “Ide can man the phones and keep track of what actions the FBI and possibly even the ICPO make. I can make sure we can listen in on any movements within the NPA and ICPO, anyway. Together, Ide and I will help coordinate everyone. If we feel that we’re running out of time, Mogi can go on the street and begin trying to hunt Ryuzaki-kun’s kidnappers instead. All right?” His strong, confident voice carried, and everyone nodded. He might not have been as effective as the previous L, although he suspected the fact that he was Kira had something to do with it. But two qualifications for being L he certainly did not lack…intelligence and confidence. Even more might complain about him than his predecessor (not knowing that the two were distinct) but they still respected him and listened to what he had to say. Even the Task Force, who knew that he was still a student in college, still respected him more than they had previously.
‘Hang on, Rue-kun,’ he thought grimly. ‘We’re coming to save you. I am your friend, and I will not let you down.’ He was half surprised that he actually meant his words. That was unusual anymore.
