9th January 2007:
Getting up and getting dressed in her usual semi-formal clothing, Kiyohime left her house rather quickly that day. She was in a hurry to leave the house for reasons only known to her and me, at the moment.
Picking up her bag, she walked out of the house, locking the door behind her. She wouldn't be back until much later that day, and with no particular destination in mind, Kiyo found herself wandering the streets of Kanto.
Flipping her handbag aimlessly over itself, again and again, Kiyo had mindlessly wandered to quite a luxurious hotel in the region that had the name 'Teito' carved out on one of the gates.
A smirk made its way onto her face as she realized where she was and walked in to take a seat in the restaurant within the hotel. She ordered a cup of hot chocolate and a simple sandwich and leaned back in her seat, as she waited for her order, eyes closing almost automatically.
By now, he should know she was here..
Amidst the crowd, the skeptical gaze of the black-haired man from a few tables away did not go unnoticed by her, his kind brown eyes seeming much darker with doubt. He pushed back his hair which hung over his ears and was now over his right eye as he stared her down. A pink hue covered his fair skin as the two locked eyes and he instantly looked away, making Kiyo smile to herself.
Matsuda was indeed just as cute as she thought him to be, too innocent and too kind to be tampered with, but too sweet to be ignored and not approached.
Kiyo got up from her seat and walked over to Matsuda's table with her belongings, "Is this seat taken? May I.. sit here..?" She asked him carefully.
"N-no! I mean, Y-yes! I mean no this seat is not taken and yes you can sit here," He said quickly, making her laugh.
Whispering a soft thank you, Kiyo took a seat from across Matsuda at the two-seater dining table.
"So," She started, "I'm Kiyohime Ikari but you can call me Kiyo. What's your name?"
"I'm Tou-Taro Matsui, yeah. It's nice to meet you!" Matsuda fumbled.
"It's nice to meet you too, Matsui," Kiyo replied with a warm smile.
"So um.. how come you're here?"
"I saw you staring at me, Matsui," She said with an amused deadpan expression which made Matsuda blush even more, "And you seemed like a nice person, so I thought I'll come and have a conversation with you instead of sitting alone."
"I-I'm sorry," He said sincerely, "I didn't mean to stare."
"But you did, and it's fine. You don't seem like a creep, so maybe you thought I looked like someone you knew?"
Matsuda was slightly taken aback by this. I mean, not that he doubted the fact that he wasn't a creep, but the way she had justified his 'staring' for him, almost as if she wanted to make him comfortable, almost as if she had intentionally liberated him off the pressure to explain himself out of this situation, almost as if she knew the actual reason behind his gaze.
"Yeah, you kinda look like an old friend," He quickly said, trying not to sound suspicious, "Um, so, where are you from? I mean, you're from Kanto obviously, but like.. you know.. what.. do you do?" Matsuda stumbled with his words as he fidgeted with his fingers, not quite sure about how to go about beginning the conversation.
But Kiyo simply laughed cutely and replied, "I'm a student, planning on going to To-Oh University, and so I'm preparing for my entrance which is on the 17th this month."
"Ahh, nice. All the best!" Matsuda gave her a thumbs up.
"Thank you," Kiyo replied with a warm smile, "What about you, what do you do?"
Luckily, just then, the waiter arrived with both their orders, giving Matsuda just enough time to think about what the fuck his answer should be. Could he just say that he was in the Japanese police force? It shouldn't be a problem, should it? He can't and wouldn't reveal that he's working on the Kira case obviously, but simply stating his occupation in a vague manner can't possibly be an issue.
"I work in the Japanese police force."
"Ahh, a member of the NPA?" Kiyo asked sipping her hot chocolate after she gulped down the bite of her sandwich.
"Yes." He replied curtly.
"Do you enjoy it?"
"Most certainly."
"Even with the Kira case? I mean, do you not feel torn by the contrasting opinions surrounding it?"
There was thoughtful silence for a moment as Matsuda remembered the words he had spoken during the meeting in the 'Serial Murder Special Investigations HQ' of the NPA building, or so he remembered was written on the paper stuck outside to the door of the room. When he had finished his statement about the dramatic decrease in the violent crimes in Japan, the loud, almost condescending sighs were not something he was unaware of. The fact that 'L' had not even responded to him wasn't something he had thought about at that time, but now as he recalled the moment, he realized that L had not even considered Matsuda's words as something that should be taken into account while charging Kira with his crimes.
Kira was a murderer, and that was decided the moment the hippocras of the government and the police force came into play, the moment the hypocrisy of the Law system itself came into play.
"Well, it isn't really our place to question the orders of our authority, despite what the opinion of the public is," Matsuda finally said, "Besides, the drop in the crime rate is something that can be expected, people don't seem to want to die after all."
"True.." Kiyo said, nodding carefully at his words, after finishing up her food and chugging down whatever was left of her hot chocolate, "I'll have to, unfortunately, take my leave now, Matsui," She stood up with a quick glance at her wristwatch, "I've got somewhere else to be, but it was absolutely lovely meeting you. I hope we can meet again," She extended her right hand, which Matsuda graciously accepted in a firm single handshake.
"Goodbye," Kiyo finished, picking up her belongings as she walked away from the restaurant, out of Teito Hotel, debating with herself as to how she should spend the remaining hours of the day.
At this point, she could only hope. She could only hope that her plans would work out, otherwise, this whole day would have been nothing but a waste of time and energy. She could only hope that she had read into the characters around her well enough.
She could only hope that he had taken the bait.
-------------------------------------------------------
It was almost 7 pm. Kiyo finally returned home after loitering about the entirety of the Kanto region. She almost knew every shop in every corner of every street in at least a ten-kilometer radius, that is how much she had wandered. It was painfully boring, to say the least, and she had already promised to herself, even though she knew she was going to break it soon enough, that she was never again going aimlessly anywhere.
She tiredly pushed the key in the keyhole, moving it around until it finally locked into place, and opened the door with a tired sigh. Getting in, Kiyo closed the door behind her, and removing her shoes, she made her way to her bedroom.
'Please, please, please, please, please!' She frantically chanted over and over again, her face stoic as ever.
The bedroom door came into view as she opened it and looked at the connected bathroom.
She momentarily froze in her spot.
The door was shut all the way.
Thank fucking god!
Suppressing her excited smile, she feigned gasped, her eyes widening. She smacked her hand on her forehead and walking out into her kitchen. The jar of pure maple syrup with 'no added preservatives' lay on the table just as she had left it from her breakfast that morning.
Kiyo clicked her tongue at herself a few times before opening the jar and taking a taste, and thankfully it was good. So, with a relieved expression, she opened her fridge and made space for the jar in the shelves since the racks on the door were full.
Just then, she saw it. The metallic shine at the back of the fridge.
She closed the door and went back into her room. Climbing up on her bed, Kiyo reached out and pressed a button on the air conditioner to turn it on when she saw it again.
The same metallic glint starring back at her.
Bingo
Kiyo settled herself on her bed, before pulling out her phone and typing in a contact she had received only a day earlier.
The phone rang before being notified that the contact she was trying to reach was switched off.
She tried once again, and the same thing happened.
She pulled away the phone from her ear as she pressed in the contact number once again, pausing, she looked at her phone with desperate eyes before loudly muttering to herself,
"Mr. Yagami, pick up the phone!"
And this time when she called, the phone was picked up.
"Soichiro Yagami speaking," A gruff deep voice answered the call.
"Thank God! Mr. Yagami, I'm your new neighbor, Kiyohime Ikari. I got your contact from your wife, Sachiko Yagami. I called to tell you that.."
Kiyo inhaled a deep breath as if bracing herself and exhaled equally slowly, speaking again,
"..there are cameras all over my house."