Bloody life...
...
After that explosion, all I did was worry about Mello. I can't believe it... I myself don't know how he managed to deal with that singe. It was awful... My gunshots were not pleasant either, but, to be honest, I was more worried about Mello than about me. Still, eight days later we were back in the game. After all this pain, I was more determined than ever to defeat Near. I wanted the people to know who was the best.
We still had to do some things which could be considered embarrassing. Like hide in Halle Lidner's apartment. That woman did look normal, but there was something about her which I found creepy... It was probably the fact that she did not seemed to be embarrassed by Mello's presence. I on the other hand was, like as usual, a bother.
Like I said, on November 19th, we were back in the game. That day, Lidner came home, and like as usual, Mello and I prepared a nice and warm welcome: his gun and my two guns pointed at a heartwarming 94 degrees angle and around 9 and a half centimeters from her blonde scalp. This time, she just told us to shut up silently. It even took me by surprise.
"I want to take a shower, so I'm taking the wire off for a while," Lidner said out loud. What the hell? Bloody Near had his woman wired?
She took off the wire and... well... invited us in the bathroom... I did not hide my look of pure surprise and disgust. Honestly, I wouldn't even watch my own mother shower. That if I had one.
"Near came to the conclusion that you two would try to contact me, but I don't think he knew that we had already met," said the Lidner woman after she began showering. I tried to keep my face straight and not burst into a giggle fit as she spoke so relaxedly to us. From behind the shower drape. Through which you could clearly see her silhouette.
"It's so like Near to think that way..." said Mello.
"And you two no longer have the notebook, so all you can threaten me with is the gun, right? You can't control me, and if you use the gun to kill me, it's only going to make it easier to track you down," she continued. Oh, that's it, she needed to be reminded who is the boss here...
"Actually, Lidner Lady, that is quite incorrect,"I said, and she seemed to have frozen behind her drape. "Let me share with you this beautiful idea of mine. How about I shoot you. Let's say only once. Creating a wound which would not be painful, but which would cause quite some bleeding on your behalf. I shall attempt to remove the bullet, causing as much excruciating pain as an unexperienced individual as myself can cause, then, if I consider that you did not bleed enough in the next three minutes, I shall repeat the process. If you panic and try to hit me or shoot me with what you have, I shall pick up that nice and sharp statue and knock you out with it, all this while wearing a pair of your gloves, so that if they get dirty, they won't trace back to us. And, like I said, I will repeat the process. This until you bleed to death. End of story. No prints, No bullets, no blood on us... How does that sound?"
Mello smirked, but he said nothing.
"Fine," said the woman, obviously annoyed. "But I'm going to have to place cameras in all my rooms after this shower. Excluding the bathroom..."
I laughed, trying to suppress the noise as much as I could. "So you mean that we had to watch you shower only so you could tell us that you'll place cameras after this throughout the house? Seriously?"
"I couldn't remove the wire without a reason," came her annoyed reason.
"Oh, really? Obviously, you did need a reason, but you could've came in here, let the shower on and talk to us without having to undress..." I replied, through my gritted teeth. Not that I was annoyed, but it was so hilariously desperate that I could barely not laugh.
I could hear the Lidner woman sigh with annoyance before saying: "So what are you going to do? Live in the bathroom? It's okay with me. I don't mind having you around."
I coughed silently, trying to drown my laughter. Was this woman serious? "I believe you were now only talking to Mello, that's why you didn't say 'you two' like before,"I replied, still suppressing a loud laughter.
"Near also thinks that the new L is Kira," said the woman.
"L...!!" said Mello. I myself was now serious. I mouthed this idea earlier, before we kidnapped Sayu Yagami.
"Mello, I guess they lied to us," I said, this time silently and seriously. "I did think that it was not a smart thing for them to give out the new L's name like that. That Matsuda must be just another policeman. Even if you panic, this is the sort of information you'd say only when you yourself are in an extremely pressing situation. We don't seem to know much now. Not anymore."
"So what are you going to do?" pressed Lidner.
"Halle, whose side are you on? Our or Near's?" asked Mello.
"I already told you a week ago, didn't I?" asked the woman, rubbing her naked body with a towel. She was provoking me to make fun of her... Honestly, this woman was not sane if she wanted to provoke me... "I'm on nobody's side. You, your friend Volpes, Near and I all want to capture Kira. We're all after the same goal. So what are you going to do? Are you going to run away? If you do, I'm going to tell Near that you were hiding in my bathroom, and I met you." Was that a threat, b*tch? "Or do you want to meet me later somewhere else?"
"Halle, go back to headquarters," Mello said suddenly.
"What? I've got no reason to go back there right now."
"Make one up," ordered Mello, pointing his gun at the woman. "Go back."
"Okay, okay... Stop pointing that thing at me," she whined.
Then, Mello and I kindly escorted Lidner to the headquarters, all at gunpoint.
"Welcome, Mello and Volpes," said Near as we entered the main room in which he was located.
"Drop your gun!" shouted on of the kind men at the SPK.
"Make me," I said, taking out my two guns out of my boots. With a nice swirl they were firmly pointed at each of the men threatening us.
"That goes for everybody," said Near, without bothering himself to turn at us. "Put your guns down. It's meaningless for us to shed any blood here."
"B-but, Mello and Volpes killed the other SPK members..." said the younger, dark-haired agent. "And they kidnapped and killed the Japanese police director..."
"We have no proof of that, and I think Kira is the one who killed the director... But that's not important now." I can't believe Near took our defence us here. "Don't make me say it again. Our goal is to capture Kira. There is zero gain for us in killing Mello and Volpes right now. They got the notebook once, and were able to get closer to Kira than any of us. That's something we should respect, and pointing a gun at him is just plain rude."
"Very well," said the older agent, he and his partner lowering their guns.
I lowered my own guns, showing a sweet and innocent smile. I hope they found that disgusting.
"Well said, Near," replied Mello, lowering his gun also with a gracious move. "So everything's gone as you imagined?"
"Yes," said Near, wiping any ability of mine to disgust people with his own, much more disgusting response. How I'd like to see it all crumble in your face... "Though I didn't expect you to come all the way here... And thanks to you, Mello, I have been able to greatly narrow down my suspects for Kira."
"Near," Mello said firmly, any trace of ironic politeness now gone. He pointed his gun at Near, finally granting me this sight. This beautiful, final sight. "I'm not a tool for you to use to solve the puzzle."
Bloody agents... They pointed their guns at Mello again, right before I wanted to point my guns at the one who ruined it all. I had to point each of them back at those threatening me and Mello.
"Commander Rester, don't make me repeat myself," replied Near. "Please lower your gun. Mello, if you want to shoot me, shoot. You too Volpes."
But Mello did not move. I have to confess that I wanted to shoot Near myself, but I couldn't take any of my guns off the agents, or we'd be dead. But then the Lidner woman placed herself in front of Mello and his gun. Lucky her that it was Mello, I wouldn't have had any mercy for her either.
"Mello, if you kill Near right now, then even if you succeed in capturing Kira, it will be meaningless. And if you shoot Near, we'll be left with no choice but to shoot you and Volpes. What good is there in all of you dying? That will only make Kira happy."
"Heh," answered Mello, lowering his gun, everybody else ( including me) following suit. "She's right. Near, I just came to get the photos you have of me and Volpes."
"Yes," said Near simply, raising with his left hand the pictures. "These are the only remaining photographs, and there are no copies of it. Also, the surveillance cameras here only monitor, they do not record. I've contacted all the members of Wammy's House and anyone else from you pasts who would know your faces. It's not a hundred percent perfect, but I think it's safe t ay that you won't be killed by the notebook."
Until now, Mello was looking at his picture and then, for some reason, he turned it. You could see two words there: 'Dear Mello'. I then turned my own picture and saw two words also: 'Dear Volpes'. Bloody Near... It seemed like he knew that he'd give us the pictures, afer all. It was all so annoying... After all this time, Near still toys with us as if we're just one of his stupid robots...
"Near, I have no intention of joining forces with you," said Mello.
"Me neither, I replied blankly. I was very tired of Near.
"I know."
"But it would upset me to receive this picture without giving anything in return..." Near was surprised to hear this. I was surprised. Bit as well, but it was like Mello to do such things. "The murder notebook. It's a shinigami's notebook, and people who touch it are able to see the shinigami."
Obviously, nobody could believe this:
"Impossible..." said the older agent.
"Who's going to believe that? A shinigami...?" said the dark-haired agent.
"I believe him," said Near. " What advantage is there for those two in coming up with such a stupid story about shinigami really existing? If he were telling me a lie, he would tell me a normal -more meaningful- lie. Therefore, the shinigami exists." The whole theory would've sounded so much more intelligent without that last sentence.
"The notebook I had belonged to a shinigami named Sidoh, who dropped it in the human world. He had to come down to get it back. But another shinigami had it before."
"We know that because the rules were written in English inside the notebook for human use, right? It would be odd for a shinigami to write rules down for humans to use when he wants to get it back..."
"You knew that, my arse," I said. I had enough of him. "Honestly, you can't make a deduction here on the spot and just say 'I knew that'. You have just gained knowledge of the mere existence of shinigami, after all."
"And one more thing..." added Mello. "There is a fake rule hidden amongst the rules written in the notebook. That's all te information I can give you."
"Near," said both Mello and I at the same time as we turned to leave.
"Mello, Volpes," replied Near.
"Which of us is going to get to Kira first...?" asked Mello.
"The race is on..."
"Our destination is the same. I'll be waiting for you when you get there..."
What happened next brought me great satisfaction, to be honest. On November 23rd, we sent one of the Japanese people, most likely one of the policemen who attacked me and Mello at the Mafia hideout, to the SPK headquarters. Sadly, we didn't make a very good choice, the man barely spoke, so we couldn't find out anything new.
But on November 25th, the tables turned. A (massive) group of civilians attacked the SPK headquarters. Apparently it was something planned by a Japanese TV station, but I didn't care. Near lost his headquarters. Now we were even, at last. None of us had a base of operations anymore. And the whole attack -which was quite some vandalism and mass destruction- happened in front of our window: the small apartment from which Mello and I were watching had a beautiful vista towards all that chaos. Heh.
And more good news for us: we managed to contact Matt, who agreed to help us. The very day we picked him up, Mello got information from Halle Lidner that Mogi and Aizawa, another Japanese policeman who almost certainly stormed the last Mafia hideout were going to be dropped off at a certain airport, so we tailed them back to Los Angeles.
Once we got there, we divided. Matt tailed Mogi, Mello and I went for Aizawa. He entered a hotel while Mello went into a coffee shop which had a beautiful view to the hotel entrance and I entered the hotel lobby, being careful not to be seen by the policeman. Even if he certainly didn't see my face, I couldn't risk it. He might've had some idea how I looked like.
After he got to a safe distance, I went to the receptionist and told him that I was supposed to wait for someone here. Then, I sat on some sofa which was far enough from the elevator and the reception desk. If somebody else who had something to do with the Japanese L would come, I could see them, while they wouldn't be able to see me. And my suspicions were right. Some other Japanese guy came in there. About a minute after the guy took the elevator, I called Mello.
"You saw the other Japanese bloke who came in here, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, we need to keep an eye on this place, but Matt found out something. Get out of there."
After this, Mello and I spied on this Misa Amane girl/woman/atrocity for a bit. According to Halle Lidner (which, once we got to spy on Amane for a bit, I started to miss) this must've been the Second Kira (once).
But, thank goodness, Matt called. He said nothing was happening on his end. Or, more adequately, he was whining that nothing was happening. So, I offered to come and keep an eye on the place myself, to make sure that nothing was missed. Mello and Matt both agreed.
My timing was very good. The next day, Mogi and Aizawa came out on the street (in our plain sight) and started talking. I told Matt to record the whole thing then replay it a bit slower, zooming in more on the two.
I managed to read Mogi's lips as he said this: "...only told L, ... when Light was in university -... Takada was thought to be his other girlfriend, aside from Amane." But this was quite valuable information, too: this Takada was the freshly chosen spokesperson of Kira. The moment I saw her face, I loathed her deeply. I don't know why.
Anyway, Mello was very pleased to find out that we had new info. This whole thing meant that, at some moment before L's death, Light (who we suspected to be the son of Soichiro Yagami, mostly because he had a son named 'Light') was suspected by L, and those policemen seemed to be suspecting him again. Light did not really have anybody on his side. Now we were sure: Light Yagami was the Second L and the original Kira.
Next, I came back with Mello and tailed Amane with him. He said he hoped I'd be able to find more info based on Amane's behavior, but honestly, I don't think Amane was smart enough to communicate non-verbally. Actually, I was not sure if she had yet mastered the art of speaking with words, not with squeals.
Anyway, while tailing her, we saw that she was going to go back to Japan, so we followed suit and told Matt to get there as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January 26th, 2013
Our target was Kiyomi Takada, Kira's spokesperson. Everything was set. I had t wait for Mello to arrive with Takada in the truck which we'll use to transport the woman. I had to wait for a bit, but Mello arrived in time.
I got in the back of the truck as he came in with the motorcycle and I closed the doors behind us. Takada got off the bike and, by the way she stood in the corner of the truck, she had a very good idea who we were. Mello removed his helmet and it was obvious that the fears of her petty life came to reality.
"Take off everything you're wearing and put it in that box," Mello said.
Takada looked at the box as if it were a cat's decaying corpse.
"Hurry up," Mello told her, raising his gun and pointing it at her. "You can use this blanket," he continued, showing her the said blanket.
"So please, keep wasting our time," I said, smirking and taking my own two guns and pointing them at Takada with a flip of my hands. "Give me a reason to shoot, I'm begging you."
Sadly, she didn't. She just did as Mello told her.
Takada was in her underwear when she said: "Before I take off the rest, could I please have the blanket so I can wrap it around me?"
I was almost tempted to tell Mello to just ot give the woman that blanket. I was curious what she would do then, but we had to move, so I kept quiet.
"Whatever you want," said Mello and threw the blanket at Takada.
"Honestly, Mello, you don't have to be so polite," I said, but kept watching Takada closely.
That was when I noticed her stop removing her bra, yet still moving her right hand. The bitch... She stood so as her right hand was not visible. After she finished removing everything, I decided I could not take the risk of not checking.
"Let's go," Mello told me.
"No," I replied, still pointing my guns at the bloody bitch. "Wait for me in the front, I have to talk to lady Takada for a bit."
Mello gave me a confused look.
"Ah, c'mon, I won't damage her, unless it's completely necessary," I said, trying to sound like a person who would actually keep that promise.
I thought I saw a shadow of a smile on his face before leaving. He, indeed, did not smile anymore, and it was a shame.
After he closed the doors behind himself, I gave Takada a smile which reflected all the malice I managed to gather in me because of these hard times. It was a smile which, I'm not proud to say, was very similar to the one Jose had before trying to kill Soichiro Yagami: monstrous and demonic.
"Now, lady Takada, it's only the two of us. I believe you have no reason not to show me your hands."
She looked horrified. I think she was about to cry, the bloody bitch.
"Ah, thank you, lady Takada. This way, you're going to give me a reason to shoot you soon enough. Now, let me repeat myself, because this whole situation must be an overwhelming premier for you. Show. Me. The hands," I insisted, approaching her slowly.
She did not move. I walked closer and kicked the box which contained Takada's clothes in the other side of the truck.
As I got closer to her, she suddenly charged at me and shoved me. I fell backwards and hit the back of my head of Mello's motorcycle. Actually, I hit several parts of it and landed painfully on my back next to the bike. I think I managed to cut myself into something, but no matter how the situation was, I felt an excruciating pain in the back of my head. Takada started wearily approaching me. She probably wanted to make sure that I was dead or take my guns and kill me and Mello, but, with all my strength I pointed the gun which was closer to her -the left- and shot three times. She fell almost immediately to the ground. I tried to grinned as my left hand, the one with the gun, also dropped and fell on the cold, metallic floor of the truck. I heard the truck's front door slam. I tried to get up, then I heard the door to the back of the truck open.
"Shit," he swore under his breath.
I kept trying to get up, but I felt myself very heavy. I tried to speak, but I couldn't find my breath.
"Stop moving!" shouted Mello. "Just stay there!"
Instead of a response, I just obeyed. I heard the back door close and the front one slam again. Then, the truck started moving. He was probably speeding. Ah, how I love the speed...
Takada wasn't moving. Most likely, she was dead. I tried to touch the back of my head, but my hand made only half of the way. As it fell back on the truck's floor, I felt something wet and slightly warm and at last noticed the smell of blood.
The image grew blurrier, but I blamed my phobia of blood for that.
The truck stopped. I heard the doors slam and open again and then Mello picked me up.
"I k-killed T-Tak-k-kada," I stammered, grinning as much as my strength could allow. That would've been her fate, anyway.
Mello didn't seem to have heard me. I saw light somewhere to my right. We were now in a building. He shouted something, but I couldn't understand it.
I was now very tired. When I was finally placed on some flat surface, I allowed myself to sleep.