A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 50

It turned out that Mello had been gathering intel of his own during the course of the day. Or rather, he had assigned Matt to. Under Mello's instruction, the hacking prodigy had somehow tapped into Light's personal phone line.

"Isn't that illegal?" Jubilee had wondered aloud.

"Yeah, so is killing thousands of people with some devil book," Mello had snorted in response.

"I guess we crossed that line too back when Wedy and Aiber were first employed," she mused thoughtfully.

"I'm just following orders here," said Matt in way of explanation. "And I don't get out much, so the whole legal, illegal thing...never really thought about it."

"It's definitely illegal," pointed out Near matter-of-factly, though not necessarily in a condemning tone, until he added, "And someone in the running for Ryuzaki's position should be aware of those lines, regardless of whether or not he chooses to cross them."

"That's what you're for, short stack," returned Matt amicably.

"Yeah, to know it all," muttered Mello.

The impending argument had been quickly shut down by L, who—whilst stress-eating his seventh slice of cake—instructed his successors that what was done was done, and that what should be done now was to focus on the evidence at hand. Which led to the interesting bit of information that Mello and Matt had discovered earlier, which was that Kiyomi Takada was Light's ex-girlfriend...and that he had called her up over the weekend to ask her out on a date this week.

"What!" Jubilee had exclaimed. "Oh boy, Misa won't like that..." She turned to L. "What is he thinking? This definitely looks suspicious for both him AND Kiyomi."

"Well—" began L slowly.

"Misa," repeated Matt to himself. "Ohhh yeah! She's that dumb blonde chick."

Jubilee involuntarily bristled at the insult to her former friend. "Hey, listen here, kid, you don't even know her—"

"We know that she's the second Kira," Mello cut her off. "So we've tapped her lines too. And yeah, judging from hours of listening to her talk...she IS dumb."

"Kind of cute, though," offered Matt thoughtfully. "Have you guys seen her in the August issue of Eighteen?"

"Yes," answered both L and Mello, at the same time that Near said, "The what?"

Jubilee was getting increasingly annoyed. The memory of what L had thought of Misa in the August issue of Eighteen was one that she remembered perfectly well. She grabbed at the new slice of cake that L was currently cutting for himself. "Give me some of that," she snapped, taking the piece for herself. Gulping down a huge bite, she swallowed and grit out, "Can we get back on topic, please?"

L—looking vaguely chagrined at the loss of his dessert—opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted again, this time by Mello. "Oh, right," said the boy, ignorant of Jubilee's mounting impatience. "I was saying that I can hardly believe someone that stupid was the second Kira."

Jubilee fought between feeling defensive on the other girl's behalf and relieved that they were no longer discussing her physical appeal. L, noticing her ire, cut in smoothly, "Which, I was trying to say earlier, is possibly why Light is wanting to replace her with Kiyomi Takada."

This caught Jubilee completely off guard. She whirled to the detective. "What?!"

Apparently, Light had already anticipated looking suspicious. Earlier that day, Light himself had declared to the Task Force that he suspected a certain Kiyomi Takada of being the new hand of Kira, or at least connected to the new hand of Kira in some way, based on what he'd seen from researching outspoken Kira supporters—and from the little he knew of her back when they happened to go out briefly. This last bit of information had shocked the other Task Force members at first, before they readily accepted Light's explanation that he planned on taking advantage of this coincidence by asking her out again, in order to investigate her while undercover. L played a short clip of this entire conversation to Jubilee and the three boys, having discreetly recorded it earlier using the many surveillance and monitor cams throughout the room.