8Hey people! I'm back, sorry for the long wait, over the summer my lap top kind of….died….So now I need to use my dads lap top and before I could even do that we had to install the Microsoft office word onto his computer. The whole ordeal was quite frustrating, but now I get to vent it out with a good dramatic chapter. And lucky you, you get to learn even more about Achika's past!
Disclaimer: I do not own death note
"I…I can't stay here anymore…" Achika's voice shook in fear and anguish, she was so close, and she had even made it all the way to L! Why did this always have to happen?! Why couldn't people just leave well enough alone! Now she'd have to leave, and it would be a lot harder to catch Kira. Almost impossible! What could she do?! What could she do?!
The young girl gasped and gulped for air as her panic attack reached its peak, she couldn't stay, for her sake and there's, she could not stay. 'Why are you so concerned, its not as if their friends right?...you know better Achika..."
Achika's hands, still quivering eventually lowered form their position on her head to hug her stomach as the overwhelming fear started to subside just a bit, she knew these people weren't friend's, they weren't family….they were just people working with her on a case. Her absence from the task force wouldn't be so bad right? She could just continue looking for Kira on her own…it'll be hard, very hard…but…but…
"….but I know better…" she repeated to herself.
Taking a deep breath, she stood up shakily form her position in front of the door and rifled through her bags for the correct item, "Its all for the best."
Finally pulling out a pad of paper and pen, she jotted down a quick message and took out her wallet, leaving a small wad of money inside the note.
"That ought to cover anything I owe…" she whispered. Packing up her stuff quickly, since she didn't have all that much, she picked up her fathers photograph sadly, "I'm sorry dad…but I don't have a choice here…" She tucked the precious picture into her bag and took one last look at the room. Sighing she walked out her room door, knowing that if Watari was watching he would think she was going out on one of her late night adventures as she normally did. She came to a halt as she closed the door leading to the outside world.
"….Goodbye…" She whispered in a barley audible tone as she closed the door behind her forever.
Time skip to the next morning…
Misa hummed cheerfully as she traveled down the hallway to the taskforce work room. Sure she had heard everything that had happened form Light last night, but being sort of ditzy she figured Achika would have gotten over it by now.
Skipping into the room and glomping her supposed lover form behind, the young actress let out a happy, "Good morning Light! Good morning task force people!"
The tired task force gave a grunt in acknowledgement and Ryuuzaki bent his head in her direction as assign he heard.
The blonde looked around her trying to locate the younger sister figure, but was surprised not to find her anywhere.
"Where's Achii-chan?" she asked curiously as Light pried her off his back.
"She has yet to come form her room, strange as it is." Ryuuzaki nonchalantly answered.
"But it's already 11:30! Usually she's up here with you two at the crack of dawn." She added confused. Raito turned to talk to her once again.
"She might have stayed out really late again last night, why don't you go find get her?"
"Okay! Be back in a few!" Light sighed a he watched his girlfriend skip out into the hallway to wake the sleeping young girl. He had been worried since last night what they would find the next morning. Would she have calmed down? Why was she so late….could she have even?...
"Ryuuzaki…why do you think Achika's taken so long to come to work. This case seems to be one of the most important things to her…"
"I'm not quite sure Light-kun…" Ryuuzaki trialed off when Watari's screen came blinking on urgently.
"Ryuuzaki, Miss Amane asked me to transfer a camera link to you form Achika's room, it's extremely important."
"Send it through Watari." L looked up to see Misa's panicked and worried face look up into a camera tearfully.
"Ryuuzaki , Achika's gone! I can't find her anywhere!"
"What?!" Soichiro gasped as he and the other task force members gathered around the huge screen where the feed was being shown.
"Misa-san, please calm down, she probably went out last night and hasn't returned yet."
"No, no, no! She's gone for real! Everything that's hers is gone even her fathers picture! And look, look I found this!" She held up a piece of paper with a large wad of money, Misa moved the money to her other hand and unfolded the paper so the message inside could be displayed properly.
In rushed scrawled letters the words, I'm sorry, read clear as crystal. The task force automatically assumed the moneys was for room pay and such.
Misa sobbed, "W-why would this happen, Light why would she do this?!"
"We'll be there shortly Misa, just sit tight for now." Light assured her as Watari closed the link.
L turned to look at Soichiro, who stared back seriously,
"She's going to run…" the chief muttered gravely.
With Achika..
It had been over 10 hours since she had left the head quarters for good, By now they probably had noticed she was missing and had gone to investigate. She was about half way towards the bus station that would take her to the farthest airport in Japan. It had taken a while for her to get out of the city though, especially on foot. But she had given most of her money to the taskforce, and she needed the rest for the bus.
At first she had been running the whole time, running was something she did when she didn't want to think about something, a way of ignoring her conscience as her mind solely focused on her pace and running at full speed. Most of the people she passed that night had been skum that called out to her mockingly, "What's the matta girly? Getting into trouble?""Where's your mommy and daddy wittle girl, not running away are you?" "Hey where's the fire doll face? Someone try to rape ya?"
"SHUT UP!" she yelled as eh increased her pace and leaning forward, using every ounce of power she had left away to escape the taunting voices. Slowly the scenery changed from skyscrapers, to smaller buildings, to minimal wilderness on the side of a highway. Not many cars where driving on the road that late so she had no qualms about collapsing to her knees in exhaustion.
She kneeled on her hands and knees, coughing and gasping for air, sweat rolled down her face but as a cold night wind blew past her she shivered. Being fall, it was going to be chilly around the clock, and she had a long walk ahead of her.
As Achika started to catch her breath her mind wandered angrily back to the people that called out to her. As much as she hated to admit it, they sort of had a point. What exactly was she running from? The people themselves? Her conscience that had been screaming go back since she left?...The task force?
"It…it's not like…they would come after me right heh," She laughed without smiling, "All I really was to them was a partner in the case, and that's all they were to me right? It's not like we were friends….i can't risk friends…I can't put friends at risk…"
She started walking to try and calm her still rapidly beating heart. For the following hours she kept assuring herself with the same attitude, until she had reached the point where she was.
"Not much farther….not much farther…" She mumbled to herself. Another freezing wind flew at her mercilessly and she shivered, wrapping her arms securely around herself. As she walked, wandering thoughts of the people she had left behind entered her head, what would Misa say? Would Ryuuzaki regret doing that research…would they truly come after her.
Achika shook her head, for a second her stomach had fluttered nervously…was it…hope? Did she want them to come after her?
'Face it, you want them to be worried about you, you want them to think of you as a friend, you want to be their friend.' Achika clutched her head in a similar way as she had earlier yesterday, 'NO I don't! I don't!' she protested and started running full sprint again but before she let herself be taken over by the endorphins she let herself think, 'and even if I did, I couldn't….they would make sure of that…'
Back with the task force…
The entire taskforce had gone over the room at least five times, searching for a trace of their young comrade, anything to tell them she was coming back. Nothing, the only clue to where she was, was the money and the note. Even that told them nothing.
"B-but where would she go? Why would she leave without saying good bye?" Misa sobbed into light's shoulder.
"Because she is acting in a panic, we are learning more and more about her each day. Something in Achika's past is making her push us away constantly, its also making her fear us discovering it. Something has happened, or something she did is haunting her, and she doesn't want us to find out what." L explained, he had been very quiet since he learned of Achika's disappearance. It was harder than usual to guess what exactly he was thinking.
"Well fine! We'll find her and tell her it's alright! We have to go after her and bring her back!"
"Misa, this was Achika's choice, whether we like it or not we have to respect it…"Raito tried to clam her
"Well I don't respect it! She could at least give us a reason for leaving! Light there's this sick feeling in my stomach that something is going to happen to her! Something really bad! And I feel like the only way to make that go away is to have her back here where she's safe! You want to keep that form coming true too don't you light? Ryuuzaki?" she turned to the leader of the task force tearfully.
L gave no emotion back but she kept trying, "Please Ryuuzaki I'm begging you, please we have to go after her! We have to bring her back! At least to find out what this is all about! Please I know this is the right thing to do! I can feel it!" She finished and stared at L.
The often emotionless detective's face was hidden for a moment as she stared down at his knees in thought, until finally he stood up, Misa waited with baited breath.
He looked around the room as everyone waited for his decision.
"..Let's go…" He said simply as he all of a sudden ran for the door. Misa gave a cry of happiness and fled after him, Light shortly behind. The members of the task force followed determinedly.
"So we're bringing Achika back?" Matsuda asked as everybody ran after L.
"We're bringing Achika home!" Misa called behind her.
Shortly after…
As Watari drove Light, Misa, and L almost past the speed limit around the town. While L and light were discussing potential places she could be Misa thought of one of her favorite memories with Achika, it was like it would convince her she was alright.
Misa Light, and L were once again on one of their 'dates', this one Achika had managed to avoid, but since they had run out of cake Ryuuzaki insisted that they go and get more.
"Ryuuzaki, why do you like cake so much? Eventually you're going to-"
"Holy crap!" Light yelled suddenly. Smoke was billowing out of the kitchen as all three rushed in its direction.
L swung the door open with tremendous force, while still maintaining his emotionless look no less, to see Achika desperately to stop whatever dish she was cooking form catching on fire.
"Mother fucking fire extinguisher! Where the hell are you!"She yelled, franticly searching for said 'mother fucking fire extinguisher' in the cupboards.
"Language please Achika-san." L said simply, picking up the fire extinguisher off the wall he was next to and spraying both Achika and the scolded ashes of whatever she was cooking with foam.
Spitting and wiping the foam off of her face, Achika glared at him as he shrugged.
"You couldn't of told me to duck?" She mumbled glaring at the ashes of her cooking.
"Your welcome." L answered knowing it was Achika's odd way of saying 'thank you'
"Heehee, Achika's bad at cooking." Misa pointed out as Achika scraped the remains of her dinner into the trash can.
"If you don't have the ability to cook, why didn't you just order out Achika? Or tell one of the taskforce?"
"1. I'm not some little kid who needs someone else to take care of food for her2.I can't afford to order out and 3. I've been living on spagetteos since I can remember…for some reason it's the only thing I can make with out it bursting into flames or anything. I just thought I'd try to cook for once. Apparently not a good idea." She finished taking out a can of spagetteos.
"Why don't we all go to a restaurant then? Ryuuzaki will buy I'll bet!" Misa started dragging all three out of the kitchen.
"But I just said that-"
"No buts Achii-chan! You need a decent meal sometime and you must be sick of that canned food. What do you want to eat?"
Achika was about to protest again when she felt her stomach rumble and she blushed embarrassed…it…couldn't hurt to accept and invite once right.
"...Sushi…."She muttered…
"Watari, can you switch lanes to the one that will connect with the highway, we have a good idea of where Achika is."
"Of course Ryuuzaki." Watari switched lanes quickly and Misa asked where they were headed.
"If Achika is truly a child prodigy, she would have ruled out all airports within the city because even though she doesn't expect us to go after her, she knows that would probably be the first place someone would look. As well as any bus stations. My thoughts are that she is headed to the farthest bus station about 10 miles outside of the city, from there her plan is to take the bus to the farthest airport in Japan and then head to her next destination. If we can't beat her to the bus, then we'll never be able to keep up with her. "
"Step on it Watari!" Misa screamed, out of surprise, Watari floored it for 2 straight minutes but gradually started to slow down.
Passing the message to the task force, who were driving different cars, they all made a beeline for the highway. The miles were traveled obviously a lot faster than Achika, so it took maybe 20 minutes to finally get close to the bus station.
L pulled out a cell phone and three wayed two the other two cars, "She probably isn't expecting us but be cautious. Think of her as a frightened animal, she'll run away before we can catch her so don't advertise we're here right away…" L and light both stared at Misa while she crossed her arms and 'hmphed'
All of them got out of the car and split up in a way so Achika wouldn't notice them abruptly.
The young girl, as they noticed, was sitting on a bench on the large platform waiting for the bus. It had rained earlier so she was soaked to the bone, by the time she got here it was dark again and she shivered slightly in the cold night air.
Brining one of her knees up to her chin out of insecurity, she vaguely wondered where she'd go now….Back to America? Nah, Taranee had enough problems seeing as she was getting closer and closer to her due date in pregnancy.
'That's right….' Achika thought to herself as a tiny half smile appeared on her face, 'you'll be an auntie soon…'
She sighed and glanced around the platform for some sign of the bus, her eyes suddenly widened when she thought she saw a familiar blonde head. She shook her head but when she looked back up whatever it was, was gone.
"Uggh, now I'm seeing things, there's no way they came…."
"Don't be so sure Achika-san…."
Achika's heart stopped and her blood ran cold, 'No way in hell…'
She whirled around to see Ryuuzaki and Light standing behind her. Quick as a flash she grabbed her backpack and bolted away.
"Achika wait!"
Achika kept running 'they're here! How the hell are they here!' her mind screamed as she kept running. Even that didn't last long as Matsuda and Misa cut her off at the door she was about to flee out of. Her sneakers squeaked unattractively as she skidded to a halt then ran a different way.
"Achii-chan please stop!" Misa called out as her and Matsuda ran after her with L and light.
In full panic mode, Achika couldn't stop herself quickly enough when Mogi, Aizawa, and Chief Yagami came from almost nowhere in front of her. Squeaking once again she literally ran straight into Mogi, who wasted no time in heaving her over his shoulder in attempt to stop her form running away once again.
"Mogi…I wouldn't go that far…" Aizawa stated as he watched the young girl struggle with all her might to get him to let go.
"I panicked…" Mogi answered in his defense.
"Put me down! Put me down god dammit!" Achika kicked and flailed around, but the more she struggled the tighter Mogi's grip got, "Why the hell are you all here anyway?! Why did you follow me! You'll ruin everything! No! Let me go!" She screamed, the good thing for the taskforce is that the only people left in the bus station (since they were so far out from the city) was the staff who had seen stranger, so they just went on with their business with no more than a confused look on their face.
"Ruin what Achika? Your attempt to run away? Why didn't you tell us in person you were quitting the task force, why didn't you confront us head on?" Matsuda asked, the hurt showing in his voice.
Achika growled as she frantically struggled once again, the fear and anger written on her face plain as day. If they hadn't known better, it would of looked like she was about to cry.
"What are you running from, what did you or what were you going to do that made you think you had to run away?!" Soichiro demanded. Achika shot her head up as she struggled and glared at him with an invincible fire in her eyes.
"You IDIOTS I'm trying to help you!" She screamed finally.
Mogi paused with her still over his shoulder and the others stared at her dumb founded. Taking this moment of surprise she kicked Mogi in the chest just right for him to let her go. Flipping with skill onto her feet and backing away she took a defensive stance in case they tried to apprehend her again.
"Achika…what do you mean-"
"Do you honestly expect, an academic genius, a hermit detective, a teenage model, and a bunch of former cops that can't even carry weapons any more, can possibly defeat them!"
Rolling up her sleeve, she exposed the ruptured sparrow tattoo once again. "But who is 'them' Achika-san, we don't understand!" Matsuda exclaimed in confusion until L cleared his throat finally.
"I believe she is referring to a certain gang of Yankees that are known as 'the Black Fury', their reputation has much to say about their name…" He finished.
Achika scowled, "You may be able to do a little library research on them Ryuuzaki-san," She spat the last part, "But you'll never know just what they are, how ruthless they are and how cruel they can be! You don't know the first thing about them or me! Do you know why I know that? Because I was one of them!" She ground her teeth in frustration and humiliation. 'Now they know...' her inner voice said, 'They're going to treat you like a criminal now smart little girl, now you'll never be able to find Kira.'
'I'm sorry Dad….' Achika thought in her head sadly.
Soichiro gaped at her "Wait...'was'? Achika how did you quit with out-"
"I was lucky. Very, VERY, lucky. Even with my martial arts training and knowledge of the inside I barley escaped with my life. When you quit a gang for those of you who don't know, you suffer dearly. Only a handful of former Yankees haven't been beaten to death when they tried to quit! My sister who knew this had to come and help me…to this day I have no idea how she knew…" She trailed off until she glared back up at them, "And those who do escape are on the run for the rest of their lives! Because to the black fury a quitter is only a loose end that needs to be tied. They will stop at nothing to get to me, or my sister or you if you don't walk out of my life right now! Don't you get it? I'm trying to fucking protect you!" She screamed, her face looked angry and in pain. The task force stared at the girl in front of them in wonder….a 15 year old, one kid trying to protect pretty much everybody she'll ever come in contact with by pushing them away body and soul.
Everything was quiet for a moment, Achika was debating on whether she should book it or not. Her thoughts were interrupted when Misa came up form behind everyone, her eyes red and puffy from crying, with tears still pouring out. "Achii-chan…you idiot!" She screamed, sprinting over to the young girl and embracing her harder than she ever had before. Achika gasped in surprise and stiffened immediately.
"No more running….please Achika…no more…" She sobbed into Achika's shoulder, Achika could only stand there in a stupor, "To think this whole time…when you were acting so cold to everyone…you were just being kind! You only wanted to keep all of us safe! I-I couldn't understand your friendship! It was so unclear how could I though!"
'F-Friendship?' Achika's thoughts spluttered in bewilderment.
"I'm sure there's so much more to this than what you've told, I know it will be painful to explain it…but we're willing to listen!You're friends are willing to listen! We want to help!"
Achika's eyes widened...friends…she glanced at the task forced behind the two and some of them nodded and smiled.
"You're always acting so hard, but I know you really don't want to keep running like this, I know you don't really want to be alone all the time. Because your not alone, we're all with you whether you like it or not…please come home and we'll get everything straightened out.."
Light came up behind and put a hand on her shoulder, L not far behind, "Just come back home Achika please..."
L nodded, "Everything will be alright, I promise you…" The rest of the task force walked up behind them.
Achika stared at the ground for a moment letting it all mull over. These people were friends, they were willing to listen….they've accepted her…but the black fury.
She looked up when she felt L poke her forehead, "Everything will be all right…."
Achika stared at him then her bangs fell over her eyes. A half smile escaped before she could get her emotions in check and they all were surprised to hear her laugh a little, "Home huh? I wouldn't call the HQ home…."
She paused for a moment as everyone waited.
"But….I guess it's all I've got for right now."
Misa looked up with her eyes sparkling in happiness. Everyone's faces seemed to brighten just a bit; even L's who didn't really show much emotion except for a small smile.
"When we get back I'll make you a nice big dinner kay? The whole story can wait till then right Ryuuzaki?" Misa glared at the detective, and he shrugged,
"I suppose."
Misa grabbed one of Achika's hands, while Matsuda grabbed the other, as they lead her to the car. Being as exhausted as she was Achika couldn't be bothered to protest at the contact.
Watari smiled as he saw them all coming back without a big struggle and as Misa, light and L slid in he was happy that Achika did as well.
"Good evening Miss Sprice, it's good to have you back." Achika nodded at his greeting and leaned back tiredly against the seat. The soft cover felt so much nicer than a bus seat. Trying to disguise her sleepiness, Achika leaned forward so she could rest her elbow on the window, covering her eyes with her hand and supporting her head.
About ten minutes later, Misa nudged L with her foot. L looked up to see Misa gesturing to Achika who was next to him. It didn't take much to figure out that the young girl had fallen asleep.
Getting Misa's drift, the detective gently and carefully moved the sleeping girls head to his shoulder so she would be a little more comfortable. Not that anything could really wake her as tired as she was. Feeling a little awkward at the situation but not too much, L absently moved a strand of hair that was tickling her nose. Misa laid on Light's lap on the seat across from them as Light himself looked out the window.
L once again turned to the sleeping girl next to him and smiled a little bit, he admitted that even he would have missed having her around should she have gotten away...
'Looks like little sister's coming home once again..' A line from a story book he used to read as a child came to mind. He chuckled silently and patiently waited for them to arrive back at head quarters.
YAAAY! She's coming back! Had you worried there for a minute didn't I? SYCH! I wouldn't end the story like that. See you next time! Again sorry for the long delay!