Death Note: (AU) Justice and Vengeance, 3/7

[qaddafi]

Justice and Vengeance
Author: Qaddafi the Ripper
Fandom: Death Note
Summary: AU: Light misses running into Misora Naomi, and she is able to tell L what she knows about Kira. Working together, can Naomi and L catch Light? Start here.
Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Ooba and Obata.



Part 3: Interview

Daikoku Private Academy was supposed to be one of the best high schools in Kanto. Currently, the top scorer on exams in all of Japan went here, which helped the school’s reputation immensely. Naomi had done some research on the school before she came here, and had been impressed with it at first. Then she had discovered that Number One in Japan was none other than Yagami Light. If he was Kira, that part didn’t surprise her, because it was clear that Kira was highly intelligent. But she couldn’t help but wonder what sort of person this Light was. A model student like him shouldn’t become an infamous mass murderer, and before even graduating high school.

She could have asked Yagami to tell her about his son, what the boy was like beyond his obvious intelligence. She hadn’t though. Yagami knew, with a parent’s flawless instinct, that she was convinced already that Light was Kira, after L had listed him as the top suspect. Yagami wouldn’t want to tell her anything about Light, beyond the indisputable fact of his innocence, and Naomi didn’t want to ask him anything. Besides, Watari had installed cameras in the Yagami and Kitamura households earlier in the day. Soon she would be able to ask L what Light was like under observation.

For now, though, she had her own task to accomplish.

There were twelve girls at Daikoku named Yuri; not surprising, since Yuri was a fairly common name and Daikoku wasn’t a small school. Naomi had a list of all of them with her, and planned to start with the one in Light’s class and go from there. If the Yuri that Light had gone on a date with on December twentieth wasn’t a student from Daikoku, she would have a hard time finding the girl. But the girls Light knew best would be ones that went to his school or his prep academy. There was a good chance his date would be among those two groups. School had let out for the day, but Naomi had wanted to walk past the building first, just to see what it looked like. She wasn’t fool enough to go looking for Yuri during school hours, when Light would also be around.

The school records listed students’ home addresses, and Yuri wasn’t supposed to live very far from school. Naomi walked there, pausing occasionally to keep from getting lost. It was 17:04 by her watch when she reached the right house, a small but neat little home nestled among other houses of the same architecture. Naomi rang the bell and waited. A woman, probably the girl’s mother, answered. When Naomi mentioned she was the police, she was let right in. The mother looked horrified by her presence as she called her daughter Yuri downstairs. Yuri, when she also discovered that Naomi was with the police, trembled. “I... I didn’t do anything, I swear,” she told Naomi.

Naomi held up her hand, placating. “You’re not in trouble,” she assured the girl. “I’m here investigating a case, and I was led to believe you might be a witness. So I’m here to get your help.” Both mother and daughter sighed in relief. Naomi was sat down in the living room with a cup of tea. Yuri sat across from her, and the mother hovered around in the background.

“You’re sure I’m not in trouble?” Yuri asked nervously.

“I’m sure,” Naomi replied. It was probably a good thing she was the one here, she thought. The girl might feel more comfortable talking to another woman than a man. “I’m here investigating a bus hijacking. It happened on December twentieth of 2004. You weren’t at the scene when the police arrived, but I was led to believe you might have been on the bus.”

Yuri frowned. “December twentieth?” she repeated.

“It was a Sunday,” Naomi said to help her remember. “The bus was headed for Spaceland.”

“Oh!” Naomi cheered mentally. She could tell instantly from the girl’s face that she was the right one, so she wouldn’t have to track down the other Yuri’s. She had been on that bus that day. Now she just needed her to tell her it was the bus that was hijacked, and that Yagami Light had been on the bus with her. “Yes, I was on the bus to Spaceland that day,” Yuri confirmed.

“You didn’t tell me anything about being hijacked!” the mother cried in distress.

Yuri cringed. “Sorry about that. I was fine, and I didn’t want you to worry, so I didn’t say anything about it. Anyway, I was on a date with Yagami Light, and if the other girls found out about it, they’d be jealous. Light-kun is the most popular guy at school.”

It took a great deal of effort to not grin in triumph. He had been on that bus! Best to get as many details from the girl as she could, if only so the girl wouldn’t suspect that Naomi was after information about Light. “Could you tell me what happened on the bus that day?” she asked gently. “As much as you remember.”

“Hmm...” Yuri leaned back to consider. “Well, Light-kun and I got on together. I was really looking forward to the date, so I didn’t notice what time we got on, or what time that creep got on. It was about 11:30 when he got on the bus.” Naomi nodded encouragingly, and Yuri continued. “I don’t know his name or anything, but he looked scary.”

Naomi pulled out a picture of Osoreda Kiichiro. “Is this the man?” she asked.

Yuri took the picture and studied it for a moment. “Yes, I’m pretty sure it is. I got a good look at him before he pulled out his gun.”

“And when did he take out his gun?” Naomi asked, putting the picture back.

“Right after he got on. He held the gun up to the driver, and said he was taking over. I don’t remember everything he said, but he was calling Spaceland for money. He said he’d kill us all if anything happened.” The mother gasped and had to sit down. “Don’t worry, we were all okay,” Yuri assured her mother. Then she returned to the story. “Light-kun didn’t look worried at all, so that made me feel better. He had a piece of paper he showed me. It said I shouldn’t worry, that he’d take care of the hijacker. Another passenger was sitting behind us, and he must have seen the note too. The other passenger said Light-kun shouldn’t write notes, but just talk quietly. Then...” she paused to think. “Oh, yes. The man had an accent, and Light-kun noticed first, but I noticed after Light-kun. He told the man he thought he was helping the hijacker.”

Naomi fought down the urge to react to that part. That must have been Raye. His Japanese was good, thanks to his mother, but not perfect. She’d teased him about his accent a few times. “What happened next?” she asked, bringing her attention back to Yuri. Yagami Light must be Kira, she was sure of it now. So she needed to get as much information as possible, so Raye could be avenged.

“The man showed something to Light-kun. I didn’t see what, but it was probably an ID. Whatever it was, Light-kun decided he wasn’t working with the hijacker. They started planning how to beat the hijacker, until Light-kun dropped something, I think it was a piece of paper. I didn’t see clearly, but the hijacker did. He came back to see, but I guess it wasn’t anything important, because he didn’t look angry. But that’s when it started getting weird.”

“Weird?” she repeated with a frown. The official report had said Osoreda had thought he’d seen a monster, which had caused him to panic. Since he was known to be a drug addict, it had been assumed he was on something at the time. If he had, though, that would be awfully abrupt. Hallucinations didn’t usually appear that quickly, even while under the influence, did they?

Yuri nodded. “Yeah, it was like he was on something. He was looking at the back of the bus, and he started yelling about a monster. Then he started shooting at it.” The mother let out another gasp of terror. “Don’t worry, Light-kun protected me,” Yuri added quickly. “And anyway, the shots didn’t get close to anyone. I don’t remember how many times he shot, but he stopped and ran towards the front of the bus. He yelled for the driver to stop, and jumped out. He got hit by a car as soon as he got out.” Yuri cringed. “I’ve never seen anyone get hit by a car before, and I never want to see that happen again.”

Had Osoreda’s hallucination been caused by Kira? They knew he could control a person’s actions before they died to some extent, but weren’t sure how much Kira could do. Seeing something that wasn’t there didn’t seem impossible, however. “Did anything else happen?” she asked.

“No,” Yuri shook her head. “That man behind us left before the police arrived, and so Light-kun and I decided to do the same. We spent the rest of the day together at Spaceland.” She paused. “I’m sorry I left. I didn’t think it would hurt anyone, and I wanted to get away from all that blood as soon as possible.”

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. I understand perfectly why you left. I probably would have done the same.” Naomi smiled. “You were a great help, so thank you. With this, we might be able to put this case to a rest.” The Kira case, not the bus hijacking case, but Yuri didn’t need to know that. Since the mother was still rather distressed, Yuri led her out the door. Naomi suggested that Yuri keep the interview a secret, to which the girl fervently agreed.

It was with a much lighter step that Naomi walked away from the home and towards the hotel L was staying at today, a different hotel than last time. She had expected to have a try a few more girls before she found the correct Yuri, but she had gotten lucky the first time.

It was past 18:30 by the time she reached L’s room and she was hungry for dinner but extremely happy. There were various sweets scattered across the table, doubtless for L, but no healthy food. The only ones inside the room were Matsuda, Yagami, and L himself, so the others must have been busy with their own tasks. A series of televisions were set out on different sides of the room on top of tables, showing two different families sitting down to dinner together. Matsuda looked up in surprise when she entered. “You’re back early,” he noted.

She allowed herself to smile this time. “I got lucky. Yagami-kun went with his classmate Yuri on a date to Spaceland on December twentieth.” Yagami stiffened in his seat before whirling around to stare at her. His face had drained of all color.

L didn’t turn from the screen. “And?” he asked.

“It was the bus Osoreda tried to hijack,” Naomi concluded. She didn’t look at Yagami when she said it. Bad enough that she was proving his son was Kira, she didn’t need to look at him while she did it. She repeated everything Yuri had told her to L, especially the part about how Light hadn’t looked worried, and when Raye had shown him something like an ID. “We know for sure that Light was on that bus now,” she concluded coolly.

“Yes,” L concurred. He still didn’t look away from the televisions, although the Yagami family was having a thoroughly uninteresting dinner. “Matsuda-san, when the cameras and listening devices were installed in Yagami-kun’s room, was anything interesting found?”

Matsuda shook his head, looking away from the Kitamura family’s dinner. “Not really. A few dirty magazines, and a diary in his desk drawer. I glanced through the diary, and it looked like a pretty normal diary to me. There was nothing else that stood out.” He paused, glancing briefly at Yagami. “Does this mean that Light-kun is Kira?” he asked tentatively.

“Well, the possibility has gone up,” L replied.

“How much?” Yagami demanded in a choked voice. “What are the chances that he’s Kira?”

L paused to consider. “Forty-five percent. Maybe fifty.” Yagami drew back, trembling. “We already have the cameras in place,” L added. “I want to observe him for a while.”

And observe he did for the next seven days. As promised, he didn’t let anyone except himself and Yagami observe Light and the rest of the family, so Naomi was kept largely in the dark. She helped watch over the Kitamura household, and none of them had done anything remotely suspicious, but it had mostly been to cover all chances that they were being observed in the first place. The surveillance tapes from the Yamanote line were watched multiple times, but no one from the two families was clearly pictured on the day Raye had died.

She had learned this much from the observations of the Yagami family: criminals were still dying, including criminals Light seemed not to have known about. There were definitely a few criminals, according to Matsuda who had heard it from Yagami, who had been reported on the news while Light wasn’t watching who had still been killed by Kira. So perhaps Light wasn’t Kira after all. Or perhaps, Naomi thought darkly, he’d learned or guessed about the cameras and had found some way to kill people in secret while being observed. She wasn’t sure how he could accomplish that, but perhaps L had some ideas. After all, also according to Matsuda, there were more dirty magazines in his room that hadn’t been found when searched earlier. So there might be other things that had also been missed. Either way, knowing how intelligent Light was, she was willing to consider that there was much he could do to trick them that she wouldn’t catch.

When the seven days of observation were over, L gathered together the team - except for Mogi, who was at the NPA manning the office there - to report his conclusion. A brief glance towards Yagami told Naomi that he probably hadn’t slept the entire week. Of course, neither she nor any of the others looked much better. The men all had stubble on their faces, and Naomi’s hair was knotted and tangled. She let her hands curl into nervous fists as she sat with bated breath, waiting to hear what L would say.

“In these past seven days,” he said slowly, “no one in either family has done anything suspicious that would prove one of them is Kira. We will take down the bugs in the Kitamura and Yagami households.”

Yagami let out an explosive sigh of relief, sagging in his chair. Naomi frowned and sat up straighter. Impossible! After everything she’d learned about Light, L had now decided he wasn’t Kira? “So, it was all for nothing?” Aizawa echoed her thoughts. “Kira isn’t one of them?”

“That’s not what I said,” L countered. “I said that no one had done anything suspicious, that no one had done anything to prove he was Kira. Kira might have found a way to kill even while being observed for seven days.” He dropped three sugar cubes into his coffee, before picking up the cup. He took a sip and stared off into space.

The rest of the team turned to stare at each other, while trying to avoid making eye contact with Yagami. “I wonder how Kira kills people,” Matsuda said. “I mean, we know he needs to know a person’s name and face to kill, but how does he actually kill?”

“Who knows?” Ukita shrugged.

“But how can we catch Kira in the act of killing if we don’t know how he kills?” Aizawa reasoned.

Matsuda sighed and slumped down in his seat. “I guess that’s one of the things we’ll have to figure out,” he said. “But it’s almost like Kira has some sort of super power.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Aizawa scoffed. “There’s no such thing as super powers in real life. You’re been reading too much manga, Matsuda.”

Ukita tapped his finger against the arm of the chair he was sitting in. “But no one in real life should be able to kill a person just by knowing their name and face. We know for a fact that Kira can cause heart attacks from afar. Is there a logical answer to these powers?”

“Maybe not,” Aizawa conceded. “But I refuse to believe we’re fighting some sort of magician or something.”

The three continued their discussion, but Naomi tuned them out. She agreed with Matsuda and Ukita that Kira’s power was not of this world. Exactly what that power was, they would discover one day. But they had no clues as to what that power might be, so there was no point wasting time in idle speculation. All that mattered was catching Kira, so Raye could be avenged.

“Yagami-san,” L spoke up, and everyone fell silent. Yagami looked up. He’d lost weight, and his cheeks were hollowed out. And there were now dark circles under his eyes, to match L’s. He looked like a man who had seen hell. Naomi felt another rush of pity for the man. If his son was Kira, there was nothing Yagami had done to deserve that. It would have been better for everyone if Kira had never come to be. But time only moved forward, and if Light really was Kira, then Yagami would have to come to terms with that fact sooner or later. “I would like to conduct a thorough search of your house.”

Yagami frowned harder. “To search Light’s room, you mean,” he said. “To see what other things my son might have hidden.”

“And to search the rest of the house,” L said calmly. “If Yagami-kun is indeed Kira, and has hidden something to give us proof in the house, then it is probably hidden in his room. But he might have hidden things other places around the house also.”

“You want a search warrant for the Yagami house?” Matsuda asked. L nodded, and continued to watch Yagami for his reaction.

Yagami let out a breath, but the intensity of his gaze never diminished. “In one week of observing my son, he did nothing suspicious. For me, that was more than enough to confirm that Light isn’t Kira. However, since it wasn’t enough for you, Ryuuzaki, go ahead and search. Search the whole house when no one is home. And, since you’re so much more clever than anyone else, go search yourself, so nothing gets missed this time!”

“Thank you,” L murmured. “I will make sure we find anything there is to find. Aizawa-san, if you can get a warrant for us?” Aizawa nodded. Naomi relaxed in her chair, feeling at peace. This was it, she was sure. Somewhere in the Yagami house, there was proof, and L would surely be able to find it. She would be sure that he would bring her with to search the house. In just a little time, she would bring Kira to justice. To avenge Raye.

Notes:
The manga is supposed to start in 2004 (I’m pretty sure), but December 20th is a Saturday, and, since Japanese schools have classes on Saturday mornings, it must have been a Sunday when Light took Yuri to Spaceland. But it couldn’t have been 2003 or 2004 either. Or either the author goofed on the dates, of Light’s school doesn’t have Saturday morning classes.

I've never sure how close I should keep certain scenes to the manga, when the scenes are close. Last chapter was probably the last time that'll happen, as there were things I wanted to establish.

Part 4