Chapter Two: Kairi
I was fidgeting wildly all the way to Twilight Town. I couldn’t stop thinking about the Death Note that was stolen from us. What if that fell into Sephiroth’s hands? It would be all my fault…We got to Twilight Town, and Zexion pointed to the clock tower that stood out on the horizon. “I would say that the tallest building is usually the first place you ought to visit.” Gildas nodded, and led our merry band in that direction. I was still nervous, and looking over at Riku, he seemed nervous, too.
But that was nothing compared to how he seemed when we reached the clock tower. Gildas had just reached out a hand to open the door when a girl, about the same age as all of us, jumped down, landing lithely on her feet. She straightened up, brushing her vividly purple hair back, and hugged Riku tightly. When she let go, all of the colour had drained out of his face and he looked slightly queasy. I took one step sideways so I was next to him, and slipped my hand into his protectively. “Who’s this, Riku?” I laughed, ruffling his hair with my free hand. “…Kairi…” he breathed. I tipped my head sideways, wondering why I knew that name…hadn’t Namine mentioned her?
And then I realised what Sora had said about her; she had gone off with Demyx! I gasped, and steeled myself in case of a fight. Kairi laughed. “It’s been so long!” she giggled, in an annoyingly high pitched voice. Riku just nodded, still looking ill. I wanted him to talk to me – to explain. I was really worried now. I tugged on Riku’s hand gently, and he finally looked at me, his eyes dull. “This is Kairi,” he began. And then he stopped. That couldn’t be it, surely? There had to be more! I waited anxiously, but no more words came. Riku hadn’t planned to say anymore than that.
Fine. It was time to stake my territory. I had to make friends with this girl, and then get rid of her from inside. I smiled at her, and shook her hand. “I’m Haru, Riku’s girlfriend.” Kairi blinked, shocked. “His…girlfriend? Wow…uh…nice to meet you.” She seemed lost for words, now. Good.
So this girl in pink just jumps down, hugs Riku and stands there, giggling. When Haru mentions that she and Riku are dating, she can’t talk properly. Riku says she is called Kairi, and that name rings too many bells. “You!” I cried. “You’re the reason Sora was a nervous wreck! You’re the reason Namine was so upset! Oh, if this was a fan-fic there’d be so much Kairi-bashing going on right now!” Blank held me back, I was (trying to) punch her, attack her somehow, she’d made my life hell for weeks seeing as I had to put up with that snivelling brat, and it was her fault he was like that! Argh!
She took a few steps back. “I… what? I did what to Sora?” I laughed, incredulously. “Oh, don’t you know? He’s a total nervous wreck cause you decided you’d forsake his love for a little adventure, you promiscuous cow!” She was shocked by this. “I am NOT Promiscuous! Just a little… bored is all. Can you blame me?” I laughed again. “Oh yes, I most certainly can! I didn’t become Regent of Lindblum just to sit down for no reason, if you were in my city you’d be locked up in an instant, I can’t believe you could do that, never in all my years of living have I encountered such an unfair little wretch as yourself…”
Needless to say, I kind of dragged on for a bit. When I was done, Kairi just stood there, tears in her eyes. She deserved it, to be quite honest, the amount she made Sora cry. I sighed. I needed to have that. I felt a lot better now, all that pent-up frustration off my chest. Obviously, it was a bit mean of me, but I felt that it was only fair. She went to walk away, silently, when Riku grabbed her arm. “No. Don’t even think about it. You ran away from your problems before, and you lost both Sora and I in the process. You aren’t leaving me again.” Haru looked a little upset. “Haru is my girlfriend, like it or not. I love her with all my heart. Gildas has his own problems to deal with. Respect us for who we are, get over our flaws and journey with us. You aren’t leaving me again.” He said that last line again. Kairi looked defeated. I was gobsmacked. HER, travel with US? He had to be joking! However, when we started walking and she tagged along, he clearly wasn’t. Nobody noticed the frozen bugs in the bush we passed. I had to vent my anger somehow, a few bugs wouldn’t make a difference.
I was so glad when Gildas went off on one; it meant that I just had to stand and look angry, without needing to put my own feelings into words. But then Riku made her come with us. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. What did I do now? I was going to have to be nice to this slut for a really long time, by the looks of things. I didn’t want to let Riku hold my hand as we walked along, but I also still wanted to ward Kairi off. So I let him…I would just have to save my revenge for a while.
“Hold on.” Zexion sounded confused. “Where are we actually going?” he asked. I stopped walking, pulling Riku to a stop – much more roughly than normal. Gildas thought hard, as did I. “…I don’t know,” Riku said, as he had been leading us all. I had been so angry that I had forgotten we were even moving. “Right,” Gildas commanded, “I think we should turn back and head for the clock tower again, as Zexion had first suggested.” We all nodded in agreement, and headed back in the direction we had come from, Kairi still lagging behind us all.
We reached the clock tower again, and Gildas went to open the door, when we were interrupted yet again. This time, it was by a shy cough from behind us. Gildas span round angrily. “What now?” he spat. In front of us stood a girl with dead straight blonde hair, startlingly green eyes, dressed in gothic Lolita from head to foot and clutching a black notebook tightly. On the cover of the notebook, I could make out the words ‘Death Note’, and gasped quietly. I dropped Riku and strode forward, up to the new girl. She giggled nervously, and everyone behind me watched, confused, as I introduced myself. They obviously hadn’t noticed the notebook – and they weren’t going to, as she slipped it into her pocket as I stepped forward.
“My name’s Haru. It’s nice to meet you.” I looked at Haru strangely. What was she doing? Was there something she noticed that we hadn’t about this girl? That had to be it. I looked at the girl. Blonde hair, similar to Haru’s, but in a different style. The most emerald green eyes you’ve ever seen, those weren’t like Haru’s at all. Gothic Lolita fashion style, maybe she was a friend of Haru’s? Wait. Haru said ‘nice to meet you’. She didn’t know her at all. What was it? I couldn’t figure it out. Haru seemed totally cool and calm. “Thank you. My name is Misa, I’m from Japan. I’m a friend of L’s. And Light,” she said, turning to Blank, “was my boyfriend.” His eyes darted to his boots. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t save him.” She shook her head. “That’s okay. I’ve come to understand that life is just a passing glance anyway. The bigger picture comes after death.”
We spent a good half an hour in front of the clock tower just talking to Misa before she told us why she was here. “Well, I went to Lindblum, cause of the falling star? But I couldn’t find anyone, the man at the Castle said the Regent,” here she looked at me, piercing me with those emerald eyes “was away on business. So I thought, where would I go if I was a Regent trying to save a lot of people? Of course, to the most populated town on the continent.” Zexion raised his eyebrows, and looked at me. ‘She’s good’, he mouthed. “I haven’t decided where my allegiances lie in anything, really, so I wanted to see what you were doing.” I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry, but we cannot disclose-“ Kairi butted in. “We’re trying to find some guy who looks like the Regent who wants some book called Death Note to kill people with.” Misa’s eyes lit up. “Death Note? You mean…” she unzipped her bag, “Like this?”
I stood there fuming silently. I wanted to punch Kairi. We had to be careful; didn’t she understand that? But she was still acting so…recklessly. She stepped forward, putting her hand out to take the Death Note, but Riku pulled her back gently. Thank god. She couldn’t take the Death Note. I nodded, smiling. “Yeah, exactly like that. He already had one, but he lost it, and now he’s after another. But we can’t let him get it. We have to stop him – he would use it to kill everyone! So, will you join us, and help us stop him?” I asked boldly, dreading the answer. Misa hesitated a little, and then nodded, grinning broadly. “Sounds fun!” she giggled.
Gildas looked up. “It’s getting dark,” he murmured. “We should find somewhere to rest for tonight.” We all looked up, and nodded in agreement. “I know! We can sleep at my house tonight!” Misa cried. We accepted the offer, and followed her through Twilight Town, until we entered a house on the outskirts. It was decorated mostly in black, and there were candles and photos everywhere. Most of the photos were of a man a few years older than us, with brown hair and a serious face. Blank seemed to groan every time he saw one, so I assumed that he must be Light.
Misa settled everyone down with sleeping bags and blankets and sofas for the night, and we all fell asleep. I lay awake for a while, holding Riku tightly and glaring at Kairi, thinking angrily, but eventually I couldn’t stop my eyelids from drooping heavily, and I fell into a restless sleep…
In the morning, I woke up to Misa running in, shrieking. “The Death Note! It’s gone! I don’t know what happened to it!” she cried, shaking her head furiously and sending tears flying. Gildas jumped to his feet and tried to calm her down, while I looked around for Kairi. She wasn’t here. “Kairi’s gone, too, guys,” I muttered. Riku shook his head. “You can’t be suggesting she took it? She wouldn’t!” I got inexplicably angry then. Why did he trust her over me?
This was ill news for us all. With the Death Note gone, and Kairi disappeared, suspicions immediately to thievery. Blank was busy trying to calm Misa down (“That was Light’s Death Note, now I can’t even talk to Ryuk anymore!”), Riku stood against the wall, arms folded and eyes closed, and Haru was in the kitchen (“I’ll go make Misa a cup of tea…”). Zexion lay outstretched on the floor. Finally able to be myself without those awful guards around, I lay my head on his chest as he ran his fingers through my hair. “I missed this so much…” He said, and I nodded. I had forgotten how good it felt.
Once Misa was sufficiently calm, and everyone was sat together, Zexion formulated our plan. “We have two possibilities. Either Kairi stole the Death Note, or Kairi was awake when the Death Note was stolen, and was kidnapped. That would suggest that she did, in fact, try to help us. Why else would she be kidnapped? Either way, we need to find them both. Now, I suggest we ask around this street for clues, to see if anyone saw a man or woman with a black notebook (who isn’t Misa). Me, Gildas and Riku will head down to the left (looking from the doorway) and Haru, Blank and Misa can check to the right. Any questions?” Everyone shook their heads. Zexion nodded at me, and I couldn’t suppress a small giggle. Finally, other people were getting to see his authoritative side- I was used to it by now.
Zexion gave me a sneaky look as we walked out of the house. I knew he wanted me to ditch Riku with the other group and… not find the Death Note, but we had to, or else innocent lives could be lost. We passed several people who simply shrugged us off, a few who said they’d seen a girl (though matching Misa’s description) holding one, and one person randomly ran after us with a baseball bat. When we got back to the house, the others were (startlingly) already there, with a young boy who looked about 7 years old. He had a baseball cap on, and scuffed at the floor with his feet. “This brave little boy saw someone, didn’t you?” Haru said, trying on her most motherly voice. The boy nodded. “Can you tell us what the person looked like?” The boy shook his head. “Why not?” The boy looked up for the first time. His eyes were scared, but strong. He lifted his right hand, finger pointing straight at… Me.
