Futatsu no Tsuki

Futatsu no Tsuki

Chapter 19

Everything was a blur, his heart pounding in his chest. He gasped for breath in rapid bursts, nearly hyperventilating as he staggered against the wall. He swallowed and closed his eyes, listening to the distant sirens that drew nearer and nearer.

"Yue, where have you…god!" The familiar voice lulled him away from his fear, a respite from the cold reality that hung over his head like a guillotine. He opened his tear-blurred eyes while he trembled, still propped against the wall. Taeku stared back at him, the older man's eyes transfixed on the gun in Yue's hands. "What have you done? Get…get inside…."

"I couldn't…I….Yashima….threatened Light….I couldn't…" Yue tried to speak, to explain through his gasping breaths, but the panic that spread through him from seeing Taeku's horrified face hindered him. He heard the gun clatter on the bare floor of the hallway, his fingers too numb to maintain their grip.

"Get inside, Yue. It'll be all right, just get inside." Taeku picked up the gun and pulled the hyperventilating teen through the apartment door, silently praying that none of the neighbors had been watching. The man's eyes roamed over the blood-splatter staining the teen's clothing as he led Yue to a chair, his mind trying to make sense of the shattered youth's mumbles. In his distress Yue had reverted to speaking in Japanese, forgetting that the American-born Taeku wasn't fluent in the language.

"Yashima…he….he said he'd return….to Japan….and he….I couldn't let him go back….he said he'd hurt…I couldn't let…Light…."

"It's all right, calm down. Yue, calm down." Taeku placed his own calloused hands over Yue's trembling ones, an action meant to relax the teen yet the contact brought a stronger wave of terror to Yue. The man watched perplexed as the teen violently pulled away and curled into a ball on the floor - his mind the next second providing an explanation stemming from his own experiences. "Yue…."

0

Crouching on a cushioned chair before a table covered with mounds of paper, L bit down on the metal tines of his fork. The white icing cake Watari had brought him twenty minutes ago lay untouched on the coffee table to his left. Between trying to figure out what Yue had found out that prompted the teen to attempt suicide, and trying to unearth the identity of a second Kira whose existence was revealed through Sakura TV, L felt his patience dwindling. It required more than sugar to figure out what information he lacked, what pieces of the puzzle he still needed to solve the case. Yet the only one with intelligence high enough to be of any use was his suspect.

'Yagami-kun knows what information he can reveal without worry and what he must keep secret, it'll be asking for a miracle to hope he'll simply screw up. Though it seems genuine that he doesn't know anything about the Kira who contacted Sakura TV….'

The detective tapped the tines of his fork against his teeth as he glanced at Light, the brunette was leafing through the stack of information nearest him silently. L frowned at his suspect as he recalled the previous morning - four days after the near catastrophe at Sakura TV, L received news about the death by suicide of Hirose Izaki, Light's and Yue's middle school homeroom teacher. The older Yagami brother had vehemently denied knowledge or involvement in the death and had insisted that though the timing was peculiar, nothing yet suggested Kira killed by means other than heart attack.

'Yagami-kun's surprise at Hirose's death seemed genuine enough, and I find it hard to believe that he'd attempt something so foolhardy as killing that man when doing so would increase suspicion of him being Kira. I don't view Kira as someone who'd risk himself for his family nor do I view him as someone who'd seek revenge for anything less than a personal slight.'

"Ryuzaki, we've looked through all this information over and over this past week, but nothing stands out as Kira related. And it doesn't seem like second Kira is planning to respond to those 'fake Kira' tapes you insisted on broadcasting…." Soichiro approached the detective, his inner turmoil between needing to trust L and wondering if Light's suspicion that L caused Yue's latest suicide attempt was justified reflected in his eyes.

"….if you wish to take a break, Yagami-san, I won't stop you. Nor will I stop you if you wish to leave the investigation…since both of your sons…."

"Ryuzaki….you still think that Yue figured out something and is trying to protect Light?" Soichiro swallowed and stared down at the detective, his countenance drastically aged by the stress of recent months.

"I do hope it isn't true, but yes, I do suspect it. I further believe it is better to hope that Yue's actions are fully his own and that he isn't being controlled by Kira as nothing suggests that those Kira controls can remain alive for long." L fidgeted in his chair then placed down the fork next to the cake. He reluctantly glanced up at the police chief's face. The next one to speak wasn't the older man though.

"Are you saying it's possible that Kira can control his victims enough to make them attempt suicide?" Matsuda perked his head up from the stacks of paper he was currently combing through. His overworked mind was, like each of the others', grasping for any possibility of new information that could move the case forward.

L blinked, briefly dumbfounded that he missed the clue hidden in his own words - it spoke of how strained he was that he didn't realize the gravity of his words until Matsuda spoke them. There was nothing to suggest Kira could or did control his victims into attempting suicide, but somehow subconsciously he'd begun to suspect it. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say he hoped it, since then it would mean Yue hadn't decided to betray L and side with Light.

"There's nothing to indicate that Kira can do such a thing, Matsuda-san. I think we all - including Ryuzaki - are all overworked. Grasping for straws…." Light, who had followed the conversation close and silently until then, piped up to shoot down Matsuda's theory. Though it hadn't been mentioned specifically, it wasn't a long jump from suggesting that Kira could control people into attempting suicide to suggesting he could succeed in making them kill themselves.

"I guess, Light-san, but…." Matsuda scratched the back of his head dejectedly as he glanced from the teen back to the detective.

"…it isn't impossible." L mumbled, his heart thumping excessively as the idea, growing from his wish, unfolded in his thoughts. "Matsuda-san, I have to say you've been more astute than I for once. I didn't realize my words suggested it, but there hasn't been any evidence that proved Kira couldn't control his victims to that extent."

"But just because there's no evidence to disprove it, doesn't mean it's possible…" Light interrupted, only to be countered verbally by the detective.

"On the contrary, Yagami-kun, having no evidence to disprove it, means that even if it is only the slightest chance, it is still possible. And as we've got no other current leads, we should investigate this one fully."

"Ryuzaki…." Soichiro studied the detective while behind him Matsuda, who seemed trapped between pride and bewilderment from being called astute by L, simply stared at the empty air. It took Aizawa's tapping the younger officer on the shoulder for Matsuda to blink out of his stupor. Neither noticed the irritated gleam in Light's eyes, nor the fine crease that formed on the college student's forehead as he tried to figure out a way to distract L from the deduction the brunette knew the detective would soon make.

"….it may be only slightly possible, but Kira's being able to control his victims' actions before death could mean he could control them into suicide attempts or risky situations. And in that case, this control means it possible he could kill his victims through their own actions. By suicide or accident. Therefore," L chewed on the nail of his right thumb after unconsciously bringing it to his lips. "I believe it prudent to re-investigate with a focus this time on criminals who died by means other than heart attack. Kira may have hidden important clues by not killing them with his normal M.O."

"Ryuzaki…."

0

The one Yue called Tenichi read over the sheet of paper carefully, his legs folded up against his chest. It wouldn't do to have the detective uncover Yue's connection to him too early - it would ruin the fun - yet the teen had already started planting the seeds of suspicion. The black haired man bit at his thumbnail, and his glinting-crimson eyes hidden in the shadow of his hair read over the words angrily. That Yue would discover who he really was, and so quickly, hadn't figured into his calculations - no, that wasn't completely accurate. He had taken a risk in addressing Yue as 7123 in his text message, a code he couldn't have known about normally; yet he believed he managed to convince the teen he'd just recently discovered it on the teen's website.

"This isn't ideal to my plan, that Yue should know I'm the one who communicated with him through his site - if the information I faked my death gets back to L too early…." He tossed the sheet of paper to the floor and abruptly turned to his right, grabbing the jar half-filled with crimson jam. He stuck his fingers into the jar, and ate with abandon the gooey sweetness. Beneath his raven strands of hair his eyes gleamed dangerously, and he flirted with the idea of silencing the annoyance using the notebook; the cold flames of envy had lapped at him steadily ever since a month before Yue returned to Japan. Pretending to be Yue's friend 'Tenichi' had become nearly unbearable since the brunette's mention of a certain one-night-stand two years prior.

"That L would allow himself to be seduced by such a weak-hearted annoyance…." The dark haired man's eyes gleamed a violent red, bestowing upon him an almost demonic countenance. "…heh…I wonder what L would do if he knew the reason Yue was in L.A two years ago. If he knew what I requested from that annoyance…." He glanced at the laptop screen nestled against the kitchen wall. Displayed on the screen was the website he'd met Yue through – though the teen had attempted to delete the site, he had been able to restore it. He smirked while his cold, yet venomous eyes scanned the page, and his pale fingers brought more rich-crimson jam to his lips.

- 'If at any time it appears my plan will not last past my death, I leave it to you to correct it. That is my only request…for you to make sure my defeat of that detective remains unbroken. If I should fail….unless I die don't make any moves that will reveal your existence to that detective.' B Thirteen-

"Yue, you didn't follow my instructions. Though I suppose you had your foolish reasons…" 'Tenichi' – B – scowled and scan-read the rest of the message posts. The near empty jam jar dropped to the floor from his fingers as his eyes alighted upon the most recent addition. He leaned forward with eyes narrowed, his left foot stepping on the floor beside the broken jar. He flinched, but otherwise ignored it as a shard of glass cut into the bottom of his heel, the scarlet blood leaking from the cut blended neatly with the crimson jam. "This is….this message to Yue…I didn't write it." Thumb at his lips, he bit into the skin with his incisor. "Oh….I get it. He found out. This message was his doing…."

B laughed and bit into his lip, reading over the message – a message only that detective could have left, one that hinted at B's supposed death. 'Leave it to L to figure out I had an accomplice prior to my murders…though Yue only hacked into databases so I could find the proper victims. Heh, heh….L succeeded in convincing Yue that I died…." B bit deeper into his lip, drawing blood; he half-glanced at the letter and black notebook the teen had sent him. "….that means Yue sent me that notebook without knowing I'm B….he wants me as his friend 'Tenichi' to pretend to be B….not knowing I truly am B. Hm….if L doesn't know that Yue was my accomplice yet, then I could toy with them both….heh.'