A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 51

The next day Jubilee knelt on the carpet of her room, leaning forward on her knees, her eyes glued to the laptop on her coffee table. Onscreen were Light and Kiyomi, seated across from each other at a small table in a private hotel room.

The footage of their reunion was supposedly streaming to the downstairs monitor only, where the rest of the Task Force was gathered in the main room. But, unbeknownst to all of them—save one with ghostly skin and a particular affinity for sweets—Jubilee was hooked into the connection as well. And, she suspected, so were Mello and Near.

Fifteen minutes earlier she had watched Aizawa do a final sound and visual check of the hidden cameras, an unsuspecting baby blue hovering over his features, before he took his leave of Light. Minutes afterward, Kiyomi Takada arrived.

Jubilee was mostly bored for the first ten minutes of Light's and Kiyomi's meeting. Hellenos had to repeatedly tap her on the head to keep her awake whenever she started nodding off. She had grumbled, thinking resentfully that if certain eccentric successors of a certain enigmatic genius hadn't kept her up most of the night, she wouldn't be so exhausted. And even though she'd promised Mello that she would monitor Takada from now on, the woman still exhibited the same normal-looking colors and shadows that she had from when Jubilee first looked at her. As far as she could tell, the short-haired brunette was shrewd and cold, but not a murderer.

Then Kiyomi's cell phone started ringing and she let slip one soft, surprised word as she glanced down at the number.

"Kira—"

Jubilee—whose eyelids had been drooping again up until this point—instantly snapped awake and scrambled forward, taking the monitor by her hands.

"What?" she breathed. "What'd she just say?"

She said Kira, said Hellenos needlessly, then added, Told you you needed to stay awake.

Jubilee ignored him, knowing full well that he knew that she knew what Kiyomi had just said. And the straight line over the woman's head indicated that it was no bluff.

"Mikami is calling her," she said, dumbfounded. "They...they're in contact with each other." That brat was right, she thought with chagrin.

"You should answer it," said Light's voice, his tone unreadable.

Kiyomi's eyes had snapped up to him in uncertainty, a dark blue quavering about her in fearful suspicion. So, she wasn't in cahoots with Light after all. At least not knowingly.

"It's alright," assured Light. "You know my dad was former chief of the police, and they've publicly stated themselves as neutral towards Kira. I actually worked for them this summer and am interning with them now, and I can attest to the the fact that they are passively in support of Kira by staying out of his way."

Kiyomi's shoulders relaxed slightly. "I didn't know you were a Kira supporter," she stated with some caution, though her hand was already pulling out her cell phone.

Light shrugged. "Since I'm working for the police, I guess I am, indirectly." The line over his head snapped.

That statement seemed to seal the deal for Kiyomi, who quickly flipped open her phone. "Hello?" she spoke softly into the receiver. After a pause, she said hesitantly, "No, I'm with a...friend. We decided to meet, unexpectedly."

Across from her, Jubilee could see colors start to churn over Light's head. It was almost like watching a parallel version of whenever L was in deep thought, except that the colors over Light's head were much darker and tinged with an oily black smog. Jubilee couldn't discern what he was thinking, but a sense of excited anticipation seeped from him.