| Fan Fiction |
by haru saihara
L stared at the monitor where a girl could be seen burying her face on her dog’s neck. “Hai. Bring her in. I want to talk to her.”
Watari stood up and moved towards the door and hesitantly, he asked L another question. “You never did this before. How come you have to be in touch with her if I can handle it myself?”
L simply nodded and sucked a chocolate ice candy. “It’s because I think she fits the job very well.”
And without further conversation, Watari tapped a wall and it revealed a hidden elevator and entered in it.
Cenielle and Pea were sitting on a stair at the 2nd floor watching people a s they pass by. She was tired of playing. She tried to walk on an escalator that was going down and descended on the escalator that was going up. She just enjoyed it because it reminded her that5no matter how hard a situation was, if you move your pace faster, you’ll eventually succeed. Like in her game, she was able to go up and down successfully. She again buried her face on Pea’s back.
“Hmm…”she said like smelling steak, “you smell so gooood! In fact, you smell better than I do!”
And as Pea was licking Cenielle’s cheek, she scratched her head and sighed as she was remembering that their money was almost gone/ it was dreadful for her because that means she had to pick-pocket or snatch again. She hugged Pea tightly and buried her face on Pea’s back and frowned and whimpered irritably.
“Excuse me Miss, may I have a word with you?” Watari asked smiling politely at Cenielle.
Cenielle whose imagination worked like a typhoon, thought that he was a rich old man looking for a short-happy time and she knew better for it was not the first time someone like that approached her. And thinking that she hadn’t had the time to flirt with an old man, she jumped from her sit and smiled hurriedly. “I’m sorry Sir, but I’m not a hooker.”
Watari, for the first time in a very long time, laughed so hard he turned red and Cenielle thought he would be having a heart attack.
“What’s so funny?” Cenielle asked confused.
He was clasping his stomach and was breathing heavily to gain control again over himself. “Mr. Ryuuzaki wanted to talk to you,” he managed to say formally but still his eyes were smiling.
Cenielle tucked her hair behind her ears and stared at the old man for a while.
“If he’s not an old pervert, maybe the “Ryuuzaki” is the pervert!” Cenielle told herself, and then she smiled in a more sophisticated manner. Who knew she was capable of such a thing? “May I know what’s it about?”
Watari turned red again and placed his hand on his chest, Cenielle really thought he would be collapsing so she hurriedly went beside him and tried to massage his chest.
“Mister! Okay! I’ll go with you! Just don’t collapse here! I didn’t do anything!” Cenielle said worriedly.
Watari signed that he’s okay and gestured to her to follow him. He was just trying to stop himself from laughing again. He can’t help but to laugh at Cenielle’s bewildered expression. Her face was so animated and every inch of her face showed curiosity with a mix of innocence. “I think I understand now L”
Cenielle was pouting her lips as she walked behind Watari, Pea skidding beside her. They turned to an empty hall and then she glanced at an electronic clock on the wall which said 5:42. And the hall turned out to be a dead end.
“Soon it will be dark, what if my intuition is right?” she told herself. “Maybe I should go back now.”
But before she could even move her feet, her eyes widened in shock as Watari tapped a wall and revealed a small room. She was struck to where she was standing as she was watching Watari get inside it. .
“Come on in,” Watari said gesturing for her to come inside.
Cenielle went inside still in awe, Pea dashing behind her, as she watched Watari pushed the “-6th floor”. She was so stunned.
“Uh—is this some kind of a reality show? Or are we in a movie taping perhaps??” she said totally swept away by the hidden elevator.
“No Miss. Everything you see and will encounter is real,” Watari said amused at Cenielle.
Cenielle’s heart was pounding and she almost jumped when a long beep echoed inside it. A small screen was visible and Watari raised his hand to it. Fifteen numbers appeared on the screen that appeared for only a second. Watari glanced at Cenielle who was looking at the screen. Cenielle blinked innocently back at him. And Watari smiled. How can a pickpocket girl memorize fifteen numbers that served as his password for L’s quarters in just a second? And then another click and the door opened.
Cenielle gasped at the sight of computers and books. She walked slowly absorbing all that she could see. The simple yet sophisticated and high-tech room was so new to her, like those in the movies. She walked towards a low table with a laptop and beside it were plates full of sweets. She turned her head towards Watari.
“You can get some if you like,” he said as he was stepping inside the elevator once again.
Cenielle looked worried and ran towards Watari. “Hey Mister! What’s this about?!”
“Wait for a while Miss.” And the door closed leaving Cenielle and Pea alone in that unknown floor.
Cenielle pounded on the door but it was no use. She circled the place and took a piece of cake and shoved it inside her mouth. “Wat on erch ish goen on?!” she said as she and Pea were staring to the monitors.
The monitors showed different angles of different entrances and rooms she didn’t know. Out of her curiosity, she pressed a button out of the hundreds in front of her and a screen bigger than all the others turned on revealing her and Pea.
She stopped backwards as she saw herself on the screen. Every move she made and every funny face she made flashed to the screen. And she got carried away and posed there like a model when she gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.
“Oh no…what if they left me here, and ordered me to take off my clothes? So that they could watch me strip?!” she said aloud.
“Who would want to watch you strip?” a voice from somewhere said coldly and she immediately turned to the direction it was coming from.
Her jaw almost fell to the ground as she found herself staring again to the slouched-back, barefooted owner of Dona Estrella.
“YOU?!” she said pointing towards L, “You are Ryuuzaki?” and Pea moved in front of Cenielle on guard.
L didn’t reply as he stood lazily in front of the table and swallowed a piece of a chocolate mallow.
“Please sit down.”
Cenielle who was so confused, finally sat down on the couch in front of him after a series of paranoid things flashed in her head.
“The old man said you wanted to talk to me? Who are you really? Are you spies? What are you going to do to me?” she said without breathing.
But L didn’t respond. All he did was to stare at Cenielle with his expressionless eyes. Cenielle felt it was like a battle of who will last from not blinking, and when she could no longer last it, as her eyes were already teary, she sighed and looked furious at L. But L didn’t move a bit, she decided to be silent and asked in a calmer voice.
“Who are you really?” she said finally in a soft voice.
L smiled looking satisfied. “At last you stopped from acting like a child.”
“WHAT?!” she barked.
“I want you to work for me.”
Cenielle who couldn’t follow scratched her head forcefully making her hair go messy.
“I don’t get you!” she said in a strained voice.
“You are good at sneaking at people’s back and pick pocketing and taking things without being noticed,” L said nonchalantly.
“What does that got to do with all of these?” she said still at a loss and then her eyes widened and pointed at L who was still standing, slouching in front of her, “ I know now! You’re a boss of a mafia and you’re recruiting me!”
L sighed, “You’re more stupid than I thought.”
She stood up, nose flaring, “You don’t have the right to call me that!”
L walked towards the monitors and pressed some of the buttons. The large screen flashed Gakusen University. And Cenielle wasn’t that dumb not to recognize the elite university only for the intelligent and the rich.
Cenielle looked at the screen and at L alternating.
“What’s that for?” she asked becoming more confused than she already was.
And after L explained to Cenielle what he wanted her to do, Cenielle almost fainted on her seat. She inhaled deeply and stood up and walked in front of L facing him dead in the eyes.
“You’re a detective? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” Cenielle yelled in a high pitched voice, her face clearly drained of color.
L smirked at her. “Do I look like the part?”
Cenielle turned around and paced back and forth obviously still not believing what L has asked her to do. Then she stopped in front of the screen and slapped it thrice.
“But that’s like getting a stone to strike my head with!” she blurted.
Then she called for Pea and they walked towards the blank wall where they entered earlier and pounded on it but nothing happened.
“We’re out of here!” Cenielle yelled at L.
L placed his hands inside his pockets still looking at the screen.
“You can get out of here straight to prison.” He said still not moving.
Cenielle laughed. “Prison? I threw all those wallets into different places! You have no evidence!” she said feeling so clever.
And then to Cenielle’s horror, L slowly took a wallet out of his pocket so familiar to her. Mr. Hideki’s wallet.
“Yes, you threw them and I have them and your finger prints are all over them.”
She looked cautiously at Pea then to L who was staring at the wallet.
“Are you going to work for me or you’re going to prison? That’s just a matter of a smart choice,” he said dangling the wallet.
“You’re blackmailing me! You have no right to do this to me!” Cenielle said losing hope.
“I won’t put it that way. In fact the benefits you’ll be receiving are more than enough compared to what you’re going to do.”
Cenielle wanted to fell on her knees and Pea whimpered at the sight of her droopy master.
after a few minutes of torturing her brain, she finally spoke. “What’s your name again?” Cenielle asked in a soft defeated voice.
L turned his head towards Cenielle. “Call me Ryuuzaki.”
Cenielle then walked towards L and looked at him dead in the eyes.
“It’s not your real name, is it?” she queried, “then call me Rana,” and then she extended her hand towards L, but he didn’t shake hands with her. So due to her frustration, she took L’s hand forcefully and shook it energetically, making the wallet fall from his hand.
She smiled. “Then it’s a deal. We don’t know each other’s background and you’ll pay me.” She said raising her eyebrow as L took his hand away.
L turned his back, “You have my word.”