A/N: A short chapter, I know, but it was taking me so long to finish that I decided I'd just post what I had done.
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"Matt, if Mello plans on doing anything drastic, I want you to tell me."
"Allison..."
"Please, Matt. I don't know if what you said about me is true or not, but... but I need to know this, at least."
"Allison, you know Mello wouldn't want—"
"—I don't care what Mello wants!"
"You aren't going to drop this, are you?"
"Do I ever?"
"..."
"Please, promise you'll do this for me, Matt."
"Fine... I promise, Allison."
"And Matt, one more thing..."
"What is it?"
"This isn't one of your bloody video games. You've only got one life, and if you die... Matt, if you die, I will never forgive you."
"...Take this."
"Huh?"
"It's my favorite game. Once this is all over, I'll be coming back for it, so make sure you don't break it or anything."
"...I won't."
"I'll hold you to that."
"Same goes for you."
Allison
"Allison, what did you say to Matt before we left?" Birdie asked.
"Nothing," I replied.
"It didn't seem like nothing," she said. "You were crying a bit, and then you hugged him, and I could tell he gave you something, even though I was a couple of meters away. What did you talk about?"
"It's not important, love," I assured her.
"That's Allison language for, 'It's important, but I'm not going to tell you anyhow,'" said Birdie.
"Good, then you understand that I have no intention of telling you," I replied, opening the door to the SPK headquarters.
"Patience, I'd been meaning to ask you," I stopped mid-sentence when I saw Patience, knowing right away that something was wrong. "What is it?"
"She came," Patience said. "Jessica came. Mello sent her."
My eyes widened. I don't know what shocked me more, the fact that Mello had sent Jessica to Patience or the fact that Patience sounded so... confident. Not that small, feeble voice she usually used, one you would expect to hear from a shy little kid. She sounded independent, strong.
"And?" I inquired.
"Nothing," she replied. "She's not my mother. She knows who is, but she can't tell me. She said she made a promise."
"Where is she?" Birdie asked. "Allison's got a gun; she could push it out of her."
"Birdie!" I hissed, not wanting anyone to find out that I had seen Matt and Mello.
"Where did you get a gun?" Patience asked, stunned.
"I stole it," Birdie said truthfully, "but Allison said I couldn't have it. She let me keep the lighter, though."
"Speaking of which, I'm going to confiscate that from you as well," I said.
"I'll set fire to the place before you can touch me," Birdie said.
"Allison, I would prefer that the building remain intact," Near informed me.
"Alright, but I don't want to see it coming out of your pockets," I told Birdie, who stuck her tongue out at me in response.
"What did you want to ask?" Patience said.
"Huh?"
"You said you had been meaning to ask me something," Patience reminded me.
"Oh, yes. When Birdie and I went to go to the drug store to get her some medicine for her stomach. I was—"
"—Um, follow me," Patience said, motioning for me and Birdie to come.
Once we were alone and out of the way of any cameras and microphones, Patience began to speak. "Okay, now you can ask me."
"Um, alright, then," I said. "You know, you're acting rather strange, Patience."
"So are you," she pointed out.
I nearly glared at her; this was the closest I'd ever been to being mad at Patience. "If something happened, then just say so."
Patience nodded, her momentary confidence waning as her eyes shifted to the ground. I sighed, now feeling guilty for having scolded her. "What's bothering you, love?" I said.
"Near."
"Well then, now you know how I feel every doggone moment of the day," Birdie says.
Patience shook her head. "That's not it. When... when you were gone. He was talking about what to do to catch Kira, and..."
"And?" I pressed.
"He said he would catch Kira in the middle of writing a name in the notebook. Meaning that someone would die."
My eyes widened. "Is he bloody mental?" I exclaimed.
"Yes," Birdie said. "Honestly, I've been telling you lot this for years now, but nooooo, you just wouldn't listen."
"So first you find out Near's going to let Kira kill someone, and now this whole thing with Jessica," I realized.
"No," she said. "No, I didn't just figure it out. I think that's the hard part."
"What do you mean?" I inquired.
"I wasn't surprised at all to hear Near say that."
I stared blankly at her, not knowing quite how to react. The silence was broken when a loud cracking sound filled the room, and the two of us looked to see Birdie chewing her gum, about to blow a new bubble.
"That's enough of that, Birdie," I said.
"Well then, if you're telling us this, won't Near be able to figure it out, anyway?" Birdie said, ignoring my comment.
"I know that," Patience said. "What I didn't want him to hear is that I knew."
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"So Lidner's going to be the bodyguard for Takada, then," Birdie noted, popping her gum.
"That's it," I said, walking over to Birdie and sticking my hand out. "Gum." Birdie frowned but spit the gum out into my hand. I gestured for her to fork up the whole pack, and she reluctantly did so.
"Doesn't saying she's a former CIA agent make it kind of obvious?" Birdie pointed out once I had thrown the gum away.
"Exactly," said Patience.
"Allison, you're a translator. Do you speak Patience?" Birdie asked me.
"I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty in that area, love."
Patience merely shrugged, apparently having no intention to elaborate.
"By the way, Commander Rester," Near said, continuing his separate conversation with Commander Rester on the same subject, "have you been able to come up with an answer for this?"
"If I was Kira, who would I have chosen for the spokesperson after Demegawa?" the commander said, wondering if this was the question which Near was referring to.
"Yes," Near confirmed.
"I'm sorry," the commander apologized, "but unlike you, I can't watch and listen to several screens at the same time. I can't do it in only five days... I need more time."
"Is that so?" said Near. "Well, I was just going to use your opinion as reference. So don't think too hard about it. An answer off the top of your head will suffice."
"Okay... Near, as long as it's not somebody extreme like Demegawa, they all look the same to me as a possibility for Kira's spokesperson," Commander Rester concluded.
"I can't decide either," said Gevanni via video chat, "but I definitely wouldn't have chosen Takada, who is still a rookie announcer."
"I agree, but it seems that she is popular since she has received second place on a magazine poll. The first place went to Miho Sato, another announcer at NHN. And of course, there are male announcers with more experience and dignified demeanor... then why choose Takada?
"Have any of you three come to a conclusion?" Near said, turning to face Patience, Birdie, and I. I glanced at Birdie, who was surprised to hear Near asking for her opinion.
"If L is really Kira," Birdie said hesitantly, as if she expected Near to pounce at any second, "then the probability that he would choose someone he knows as the announcer would be very low, seeing as it would be easy to connect the two. If they knew each other, then that would probably mean that Light knew her views on Kira. Picking her would be very risky."
"Then what are you saying, exactly?" Commander Rester asked, raising his eyebrow. Clearly, he was somewhat surprised to see Birdie contributing, and seriously, for that matter.
"You mean you don't think that L-Kira picked her?" Patience guessed, Birdie nodding in confirmation.
"Then maybe he did pick her," I said. "It's such a risky move that no one would expect him to make it. That would mean they wouldn't suspect him as much."
"Both valid arguments," Near said. "It could just be that Takada is the type of woman Kira fancies, but... I think it was because Takada was a Kira worshiper, and Kira knew about it. The reason Demegawa was chosen is because he zealously used Sakura TV to support Kira even before the world was leaning towards Kira.
"Of course, it would have been easy for Kira to threaten somebody into being the spokesperson, but it would be to his advantage if the spokesperson supported Kira. Well, in Takada's case, I am sure that she was chosen because she is a Kira worshiper. Here's a comment by Takada from last night's news."
"I feel that it is necessary for schools to educate about Kira, and Kira's teachings are the proper way to live."
"So much for unbiased reporting," I noted.
"Indeed," Near agreed. "Ever since she started making comments to Kira, Takada's been nothing but a stupid Kira worshiper. But it is also true that Takada's words are affecting the public, which is also filled with stupid people, and to Kira, this is great."
"Then, if we believe that Light Yagami is Kira, does it mean that he chose Takada because he was on intimate terms with her in college and knew her feelings towards Kira?" Rester wondered.
"No, Takada only started making pro-Kira remarks after the meeting," Near pointed out.
"The one at the hotel?" Commander Rester asked.
"L/Light Yagami claims that he is in contact with Takada for the investigation," Near stated. "And I'm sure that we'll be able to confirm that with Mr. Aizawa and the others. Therefore, if L-Kira/Light Yagami chose Takada, he would have been able to get Takada to make pro-Kira remarks from the moment she became spokesperson But in reality, Takada only started making pro-Kira comments the day after the meeting. Also, she spoke directly to Kira in the comment, so I can only assume that L-Kira made her say this comment since he had not yet gotten in contact with X-Kira at that point. L-Kira hadn't gotten in contact with X-Kira or even Takada before that meeting... that's probably because Mr. Aizawa and the others had doubts about him again and had their eyes on him. This means Takada was chosen as the spokesperson through X-Kira's personal judgment."
"But, isn't it possible that L-Kira ordered X-Kira to kill Demegawa and choose Takada as the next spokesperson before Aizawa and the others began to watch over him?" the commander pointed out.
"I won't say that it's impossible," Near admitted, "but after Demegawa died, it was a week before Takada was chosen as the next spokesperson. Even if L-Kira had ordered X-Kira to use Takada after Demegawa died, it would be meaningless and odd to order X-Kira to wait a week. So it fits better to assume that X-Kira, unable to get in contact with L-Kira, killed the out-of-control Demegawa, and then took a week to decide who to choose as the next spokesperson."
"Right," said Commander Rester. "Then we should assume that X-Kira is somebody very close to or intimate with Takada, who knew that she was a Kira worshiper."
"Yes," Near confirmed. "I understand that it's dangerous to investigate Takada right now, but could you please look into it with Gevanni again?"
"Okay," he said.
"Yes," Gevanni agreed.
"I'm going to start off by tracing all the programs that Takada has appeared on, starting with the most recent ones.
"Allison, continue to wait for any information."
"Huh? How did you...?
"You received a text message," Near said, sliding my cellphone towards me. I put my hand on my pocket, realizing that I must have forgotten it.
"I'm pretty sure reading someone else's mail is illegal," Birdie said.
I picked up my phone and looked at my texts, noticing that I had received a new one from Matt.
if i tell you that he has something planned, promise me you won't do anything stupid
I wasn't sure if that was a promise I could keep.