The Detective and the Moon [Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 13 - The Winter-Halo

Chapter 13 – The Winter-Halo

"My house burnt down...it was them." Tsuki said with a very confused voice, and if he wasn't mistaken, there may have been a touch a fear somewhere amongst it.

"I will text you an address. Please go there immediately." he commanded in the form of a polite request, as per usual, and for some reason, his voice just put Tsuki's mind at ease. He seemed like he was concerned for her, and that he would make her feel better when she got there. "I will bring Hisuiro for you." he added in a quiet voice, and she nearly broke right there.

Everything to do with this case was absolutely killing her, physically, mentally and psychologically, and even though they were all stressed, exhausted, frustrated, and more than likely in pretty terrible shape medically, the way he spoke to her just seemed like all the exhaustion in the world couldn't stop him from helping her out and putting her mind at ease.

With a deep breath, she nodded, made a small sound – that was much weaker than she wanted it to be – and hung up the phone. She put her helmet back on her head, did it up and started the bike after receiving L's text and getting her bearings. From where she was down the street, she could seem the smoking ruins of her house, and her several neighbours standing out the front, looking worried, as well as the fire fighters who were starting the clean up.

Taiyou would sort the rest out and he probably was already taking measures to contain the incident, so she didn't bother worrying about it. She took one last look at the large red 'Sora' kanji painted on her driveway, put the visor down on her helmet and skidded off in the direction of the address L had given her. She nearly got lost after making a wrong turn, but eventually got back on the right track and found the building a few minutes later.

It was at least four storeys, with so many windows and an underground car park. She drove in and parked nearest to the door, where L just happened to be waiting for her, much to her surprise. She was still shaken up, and her breathing was slightly irregular and shallow, so she took it slowly as she got off the bike, and started undoing her helmet.

Silently, L just watched her with big, dark eyes with worry floating around in them, and even though she could tell it took him a lot of effort to do, he tried to erase the fatigue that was even getting to him from his face and his body language the best he could – which would never cut it with her as the person looking at him – and he did something so simple.

He smiled.

Just as she had taken off her helmet, he noticed the cloth mask had slipped down, revealing her face. If Taiyou or Kumo had looked at her, they would have recognised the expression scarily well, Taiyou in particular, having seen it twice before. Unfortunately, Ame wasn't around early enough to see the second of two times that this expression had been on her face in her life time, and neither had L.

But L had taken enough notice of her since he had met her to know that right now, she was just a young adult girl, who was going through one of the toughest experiences in her life, and at the moment, she was at her breaking point.

Things were getting too much for everyone, but Tsuki seemed to take it more personally than everyone else, as if she was thinking that it was her fault, her own incompetence as a Sora Ops agent that was stopping her from solving this case and catching the Aka Sora already.

She looked like she was a combination of worried, exhausted, angry, and the one thing he never thought he'd see in her icy blue eyes; fear. Tsuki, the second highest commanding agent of the Sora Ops, the agent who had been working for the Sora Ops since she was a child, and had caught countless dangerous criminals and had undoubtedly saved the lives of so many people without them ever knowing it.