A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 25

Jubilee didn't think she had ever worn a dress this tight, even back in her thieving days. As instructed, she had retrieved the offending article of clothing out of the back of Misa's closet at headquarters. Now she was sitting on a couch in Misa's downtown apartment, squeezed between half a dozen other girls in dresses that matched hers except for color. Hers was blue. The others flaunted a variety of other colors from the rainbow.

Misa, flouncing about in a pink dress, addressed the group of middle-aged men in suits who were filing through the door, followed sheepishly by Matsuda. "Welcome!" the blonde girl announced cheerily. "Tonight, I'll be entertaining you, our special guests, along with the girls from our agency."

She gestured towards the couch where Jubilee and the other girls sat. As rehearsed, Jubilee plastered a smile on her face and, along with the other models, chirped, "Good evening! We're very pleased to meet you."

It made her want to gag. Behind the men—whose expressions ranged from wary to intrigued—Matsuda gave her a bewildered look upon recognizing her, and Misa sent a wink and thumbs up her way. Jubilee just barely refrained from cringing.

Just be cute! the younger girl had chided her twenty minutes earlier. I know you can do it!

Right, Jubilee had responded glumly as she vainly attempted to tug the hem of her dress down. Thanks.

If the men from Yotsuba weren't staring at her and the other girls just now, she would have liked to throttle Matsuda for putting her in this situation. Both him and L.

There had been one more argument between her and the detective before she managed to make it to Misa's. It was right after she had reentered the main room after changing into the assigned wardrobe. Walking stiffly down the landing in high heels borrowed from Misa's shoe rack, with her hair piled high and her face cosmetically enhanced by products found in the younger girl's bureau, Jubilee felt her breathing grow suddenly shallow as images from Chicago—the glitzy outfits, the nightclub strobe lights, the men sidling up close behind her—assaulted her mind's eye. She had frozen and gripped the banister railing tight, afraid she would have a panic attack.

I can't do this, she had thought.

Wedy approached her then, oblivious to her turmoil, holding out a benign looking purse. Reaching in, the other woman pulled out a tiny security camera mounted on a pin.

"These are state of the art security cams," the other woman began saying. "They're wireless and easy to install, even for a child. Secure one in every corner of the room. There's a hammer in this purse." She put the bag into Jubilee's hands before she could protest. It was heavier than it looked.

L had shuffled over during Wedy's instructions. Jubilee, still feeling like she was about to hyperventilate, just barely managed to process both Wedy's words and L's presence. She stared at the purse in her hands.

"Wait," she said, her voice cracking. She turned slowly to L and pointed a shaky finger at Wedy. "Wedy's hot. Wedy's more suave than I am. And Wedy knows security cams better than I do. Why don't you make her do this?"

L met her panicked, kohl-rimmed eyes with an emotionless gaze. "Wedy already has another role to play."

"Pretending to be a civilian on the street? That doesn't make any sense! I should be the one doing that! You—"

"Miss Amachi," L suddenly snapped. It was the first time he had ever used such a tone with her. "If you propose to infiltrate the Yotsuba Corporation's head office, wiretap and install much more advanced and complexly hidden security cameras throughout the entire building in less than thirty minutes, and then make it back to the designated meeting point in time to perform the final steps of the rescue mission—then please, feel free to switch places with Wedy. Otherwise, stop second-guessing my plan. We are out of time."