Futatsu no Tsuki

Futatsu no Tsuki

Chapter 10

Souichiro parked his car in the driveway, pressed the button to lock it, and then hurried to the front door. He swallowed, shaking inwardly from all the recent events and stresses, along with memories from years back. It all rolled together into a tumult threatening to tear him up from repressing it - the relief of Yue's return after five long years came amid the stress of having Light suspected of being a mass murderer, he didn't know what to feel or how to endure it.

He had to keep himself composed, had to keep the emotions from his job out of his personal life, even though now his job and personal life had become connected.

'I must not keep myself preoccupied on the case now. I'm returning back to it tomorrow, tonight I need to focus on my family. Need to focus on Yue.'

He opened the door as he finished focusing himself, pushing aside the worries even if only temporarily. His tired, yet expectant eyes searched the front hallway the door opened to for his awaiting family - yet only Sayu and Sachiko were there. Both welcomed him with uneasy smiles and he almost asked his question before he heard the raised voices from upstairs.

"Light and Yue….."

"They've been like that for about 10 minutes. Arguing. I don't think they've started fighting physically, but they didn't seem to notice me when I tried to stop them from yelling."

Souichiro sighed then massaged his temple and forehead, the yelling loud enough to hear but not enough to make out the words. "What are they arguing about?"

"I made out some words about Light's spare uniform jacket and Yue's clothing choice, but…."

"Uniform…? Didn't they always used to fight about such things?"

"Yeah, that's why I don't really want to try to stop them…." Sachiko smiled a full smile, with moisture at the corner of her eyes. "It's been so long…it's nice to hear Yue's voice even if it's shouting. It makes it feel like things are just as they were five years ago."

Souichiro nodded, slipped off his shoes and entered further into the house, the yelling above a bit more distinct as he moved closer to the stairs. He glanced back at Sachiko before he stepped on the bottom stair, then he shifted his gaze back upstairs as he ascended a couple more steps.

"Light, Yue, stop yelling. Tonight is to be a celebra….." His words died when a loud thump sound, as though something or someone hitting the wall. Within seconds he raced up the stairs, reaching the second floor in time to catch Yue lunging at Light with a readied fist. "Yue, stop!"

The younger twin froze as his father's voice reached his ears, his left hand held the collar of Light's shirt while his right hand he readied for a punch. His caramel eyes glanced toward the stairs then at his brother's face, noticing the slight smirk that quickly faded from Light's lips.

'Son of a….' Yue lowered his right arm as he glared directly into his brother's face. 'He heard dad's voice from downstairs and pushed me to bait me into…..'

"Violence isn't an answer to winning arguments, Yue." Light calmly spoke, the tone betraying a hint of condescension. The older brother straightened out his ruffled clothes before turning to their father, his eyes gleaming with the expectation of seeing their father's disapproving, disappointed expression. Chocolate eyes widened at the worry and horror displayed on their father's face.

"Yue, your arm….what….." Souichiro approached his youngest son, ignoring Light's puzzled stare. The marks of bright red on Yue's white shirt sleeve were small, but Souichiro noticed them, and his stomach clenched. Immediately Yue pulled his left arm away and hid it behind his back, his head lowered so that his hair covered the top half of his face.

"It's nothing." Yue bit down on his bottom lip, tensing as his father stood next to him and attempted to take hold of the arm. The following second he allowed his arm to be taken from behind his back, the futility of resisting obvious to him.

0

L glanced over a sheet of paper held daintily between his finger and thumb as he picked up another from a pile on the table in front of him. His dark, heavily lined eyes read over the information printed on the sheets and his eyes softened, lips frowning.

'It is as Yue said, the only evidence against Taeku Takashima was his confession - and considering the information here, that he had a ward in his care . . . ' L placed the first sheet back down and picked up another; he stared at this one awhile, deep in thought. Beside him Watari wheeled in a dessert tray and began placing tea and treats on a small table free of papers.

"Ryuzaki, the others might not have noticed you didn't give a yes or no response to Yagami-san's question earlier, but . . . . " Watari glanced at the table across the room where the rest of the Taskforce members searched through papers for more clues on Kira; after a moment he continued in his lowered voice. "Did you or did you not inform Yue about you, the investigation, and his brother?"

'Taeku's ward is unnamed on this sheet, but it was most likely Yue.' L chewed on his thumb, then turned his head toward Watari. "I did not need to inform Yue of anything, he has a mind as sharp as his brother's." The detective turned back to the sheet of paper he held, attentive eyes absorbing the information incessantly. 'The information about the loaded bullets and the fatal bullet only having fingerprints not matching Taeku's while the rest of the room and such had been wiped clean - including the fallen casting of the bullet that killed the victim - it proves someone else loaded the gun. Essentially . . . .'

"Ryuzaki, you will not be able to mislead me about what you revealed to Yue with those sort of responses." Watari sighed and waited beside L until the detective placed the papers down and turned toward him.

"It is not that I am attempting to mislead, it is just you are not asking the right questions. The question you asked is if I told Yue about things, and the answer to that is no, I did not. Now if you asked if Yue knows about me, the investigation, and my suspicions, then the answer is yes, he does."

The old man blinked, thought a moment, then stared at L with slightly widened eyes.

"How does Yue-san know if you did not inform him? He just returned to Japan today and couldn't have found out that much about things on his own. There . . . There is something you are keeping from me and the taskforce, what . . . ."

L tilted his head, eyes aimed at the pile of papers on the table though focused on nothing tangible. His hands he placed on his kneecaps as he contemplated his answer. His cheeks pinked slightly.

"I trust you not to share this with anyone, Watari. It seems Yue had . . . Yue was the one I spent that night with in America two years ago. Because of that . . . Because he figured I was over 18 then, he guessed I wasn't a first year college student." L spoke, his face pressed against his legs folded against his chest. He noted Watari's briefly surprised expression out of the corner of his eye, saw the questions forming in the old man's face, but he continued without waiting. "During our conversation I discovered the reason he is against Kira, and due to my deductions then and Yue's deduction that I was over 18 two years ago, Yue was able to figure out who I was. Of course, his own efforts to investigate Kira prior to returning to Japan must have helped him make an accurate profile on Kira himself. The most interesting part is, he didn't seem shocked at the idea that Light is a Kira suspect."

"Ryuzaki, Yue . . . . "

"He was reluctant to believe it, and is planning to prove Light's innocence with his investigation, but he wasn't shocked. Which is probably due to the fact that he knows his brother's personality and views on justice. And Yue would know his brother's intellectual prowess. Truthfully, Yue's return could be either disastrous or essential to solving the case and catching Kira - it depends on his views of justice and loyalty."

"All right, Ryuzaki, but if Yue-san is the one from that night in the States . . . two years ago he was only 16! Ryuzaki, that was statutory -"

"I know that, Watari. And I wondered myself how I could've been tricked by his fake-ID that night - the moment after Yagami-san left to see his family I inquired about it with the Identification Office in charge of that State's IDs. It turns out Yue was able to trick them with false information to give him a real ID."

Watari blinked and exhaled slowly as he shook his head. "That may exempt you from a charge since you had valid reason to believe he was over 18, but if Yagami-san or the other officers ever found out -"

" . . . There is no reason for them to find out, it was 2 years ago and will remain a past event. I have no desire to jeopardize solving this case by becoming involved with my suspect's twin." L picked up a spoon and a teacup from the dessert tray, placed both on a paperless spot on the table and poured some tea. "I desire to focus on the investigation of Kira now, past events are past events." He noted Watari's brief nod as the old man sighed and bustled over to the other officers with a tray of coffee.

'Yue-kun . . . Um.'

0

Later on that night:

Light stared at the blank, open page of the death note, the image of Yue's arm burned into his thoughts. All those scars along the pale forearm, most that seemed at least a year old, and then those recent semi-healed cuts - Light gritted his teeth as he struggled to keep the memories from 5 years ago at bay. He closed his eyes, arms crossed in front of him, in an effort to at least control the anger brewing inside him.

'Hirose, if only I could see your face before you die, yet I can't…not until I get rid of L….I will not just have you die of an illness - to get used to the idea of death….what you did….'

Light leaned back in his chair and opened his eyes, his face looking up at the ceiling. Behind him he listened to Ryuk munching on the apples he was able to get for the Shinigami. He focused on that sound, mentally counting how many bites the Shinigami took to eat each apple to distract himself from his anger. Ever since the Lind L. Tailor incident he'd determined never to use the death note when not calm - now that L suspected him, he had to be extra careful.

'Yue….I couldn't even tell where the cuts from your suicide attempt 5 years ago were, you cut so much since then….I….damn, looks like tonight is not a night I can use the death note since the only name and face I'll be able to think of is Hirose's.' Light inhaled then exhaled as he uncrossed his arms and then closed the death note, placing it back in its hidden compartment.

0

Souichiro tentatively brought his hand up to knock on Yue's bedroom door. The information he'd found out, about that homeroom teacher, festered in his thoughts. Inside his mind and heart waged a war between the need to question Yue about it to confirm what L implied, and the dread of an answer he never wanted to hear. Deeper inside him swirled into a ball was the urge to kill the teacher himself, to rip the truth from the teacher's own lips. The desire and idea swam through his thoughts and as he stood outside Yue's bedroom door he understood exactly how family members of a victim felt. He truly understood the desire and appreciation they had for Kira's methods.

'I shouldn't even be thinking this, but….if I….if I….' He shook away the thought and turned toward the door leading to the shower and tub.

Yue lay unconscious outside of the tub, leaning on the edge with his arms placed under the water. Water that was a rich shade of crimson. The thirteen year old's scrawny form clothed only with a pair of underwear - the water started to spill out of the tub.

"Yu…." Souichiro rushed to the tub and pulled Yue away from the water. The teen's limp form fell against his chest as the numerous cuts continued bleeding. "Yue!"

Behind him he heard Sachiko cry out, and then felt her pull Yue into her own arms - it took only seconds for him to rush to the phone and call an ambulance, the whole time struggling not to break down.

"Yue." He pressed his forehead against his youngest son's bedroom door, his throat dry as the memory consumed him. During the ride in the ambulance that time, holding Sachiko to him while the paramedics kept Yue stabilized, he'd questioned 'why?' Why did Yue attempt such a thing? Why would he feel the need to - what had been so wrong that he felt that was the only way?

Seeing the young boy lying unconscious on the hospital bed, the IV attached to his arm and heavy bandages around his wrists, Souichiro had reached the conclusion that it'd been his fault. The idea that he'd missed some vital clue, had missed the important signs of Yue's pain stuck fast in his thoughts. And Yue's second suicide attempt a mere 2 days after he was discharged after the first one only helped to solidify that idea.

Now, lingering in front of his youngest son's bedroom door with the image of those fresh cuts on Yue's arms from earlier that day engraved in his thoughts, Souichiro felt physically ill. His body shook as the implications about what that teacher did to Yue echoed in his ears and brain - the idea one that created more guilt inside him.

'If only I'd been able to notice and help Yue then - I should've noticed and protected him. There were signs - Yue started to slip behind in school, not by simply a few points but by fully disregarding school work, and then even the entrance exams for High School. Damn it! Then he punched that teach-' Souichiro's eyes widened as his mind made the connection and he felt his blood race through his veins. 'The teacher he punched was that homeroom teacher! God! And I grounded him then for disrespecting . . . that scoundrel teacher . . .that . . . .'

0

Yue paused and glanced at his locked bedroom door as he opened his window; he waited until he heard footsteps walking away and then he shifted his eyes to the tree growing next to his window. Exiting through his bedroom window, Yue reached for the closest tree branch and clung tightly to it; the next second he allowed his legs to leave their perch on the windowsill. His bare-except-for-socks feet stopped his swing before he hit the trunk with his torso - next he swung for a few seconds, stretching himself as close to the ground as possible before jumping down.

After landing noiselessly in the yard he took out the shoes he hid in his pockets and put them on. Then he quickly re-checked his pockets for the money and memo pads he needed. Noting their presence, he swift and soundlessly left the yard and began his trek from the house.

'Sorry mom, dad, but I am investigating tonight whether aniki wants me to or not. And with a Kira suspect living under the same roof, it is not sane to investigate from home.'