Keiko never expected that she would wake up the next morning to her cell phone ringing. Eyes still closed, she felt around her desk, grabbing the offending object. It was way too early in the morning for her to properly function.

“H-hello,” Keiko stifled a yawn as she picked up, wondering who could be calling her so early in the day.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I just wake you up?” the voice on the other side said, “it’s Light Yagami.”

Light! Keiko’s eyes immediately snapped open as soon as he said his name. This was the first time he was calling her, and she guessed that it had to be about the favor she now owed him.

“Yeah, but it’s fine, I guess,” she grumbled, “what’s up?”

“I was thinking the other day...I figured out how you can repay me for helping you out with your ex situation...” Light started to say. He trailed off, and Keiko figured he was trailing off on purpose to pique her interest. She had to admit, it was working.

Keiko sat up in her bed, “How? How can I help the oh-so-great Light Yagami?”

“Free up your schedule today and go on a date with me,” he simply replied.

Upon hearing his response, Keiko’s eyebrows shot up in confusion. A date with Light was one of the last things she expected, “y-you want to go on a date? With me?”

“Why do you make that sound so impossible? Are you going to act shy now that you’ve already stolen a kiss from me? I was just thinking and your ex boyfriend believes that we are dating, so why not actually go on a date together?”

Keiko could feel herself turning red. A date! With Light Yagami! She hadn’t considered him in that way before, but she couldn’t deny he was attractive. The other girls in her class would be envious if they knew.

When she didn’t respond right away, Light kept on going, “you do want to repay me for helping you out in your time of need, don’t you?”

“O-of course!” Keiko replied, “but are you su-”

“Great, then it’s settled,” Light interrupted before she could say anything else, “I’ll come by around two o’clock, sound good?”

“Y-yeah,” Keiko stuttered out, clearly defeated, “I’ll see you then.”

“Great. I’ll see you then,” and with that, Light hung up.

Keiko put her phone down and nearly jumped out of her bed, heading straight towards her closet. She now had a date to get ready for.

/timeskip/

True to his word, at exactly two o’clock, Light Yagami rang the doorbell. He was dressed in a casual gray t-shirt, paired up with black slacks, which Keiko thought fit him rather well. She had opted for a floral blouse paired up with fitted blue jeans, cute but simple. Light smiled, looking her over.

“You look nice,” he commented, “are you ready to go?”

Keiko nodded, and the two fell in step together. He hadn’t mentioned where he was taking Keiko at all, but she didn’t mind the mystery. It was all a part of the fun. He escorted her to the bus stop, ushering her to the back of the bus. He let her take the window seat.

“What a gentleman,” Keiko remarked.

“But of course,” Light replied, looking straight ahead as the bus started moving. Keiko tried to hold some polite conversation with him, but she had to admit she didn’t feel like she had his full attention. He seemed a little distracted.

No way...he isn’t nervous being with me, is he? ...no, that can’t be it, he’s used to girls fawning over him. It has to be something else. But what?

“Light-kun, is something wrong?” Keiko asked, at this point the bus was almost at the next bus station.

“I’m fine,” Light replied, “don’t worry.”

Before Keiko could reply the bus came to a complete halt, and the front door of the bus opened. Keiko lifted her eyes to the front of the bus when she heard someone new now ascending the steps. The first thing that she noticed about the man was that his eyes looked bloodshot, and his hair was sticking up in all sorts of crazy directions. Everything about the man just screamed that something terrifying was about to happen.

Keiko swallowed hard, a bad feeling settling deep in her gut. Beside her, she could feel Light stiffen up, as if he knew something was about to happen as well.

Her suspicions were confirmed as soon as the man opened his mouth to speak, “ladies and gentleman, stay in your seats unless you wanna die,” the man started, taking a gun out of his coat and aiming it at the driver of the bus, “this is a bus jacking!”

There were several gasps inside of the bus, and Keiko felt nearly sick to her stomach. She could sense the collective panic of the passengers around her.

“Shut up, damn it!” The man said, “nobody even make a damn move unless they want me to blow their head off!”

He waved his gun in the direction of the passengers of the bus wildly for a moment before returning his attention to the bus driver, the rest of the bus becoming silent with fear. The man was striking up a heated conversation with the bus driver, but because they were in the back of the bus, Keiko couldn’t quite hear what was going on. The investigative side of her, even though she knew she was in great danger, was dying to come out.

Keiko tried to quietly sit up and crane her head to see what was going on up front when she felt Light’s hand tug the side of her shirt.

“Don’t draw any attention to yourself,” he hissed out of the corner of his mouth. Keiko slowly sat back down on her seat, watching as Light carefully dug out a piece of paper from his pocket and scribbled a few words onto it.

A few seconds later, after he had finished, he passed the paper to Keiko, who quietly read it, “Don’t worry, Keiko, it’ll be okay. My dad’s a policeman and he’s taught me what to do in emergencies like this. As soon as he turns around, I’m going to pin him down and grab the gun out of his hand. He doesn’t look that strong, trust me, I’m sure I can do this.”

Keiko’s eyes widened as she read the note and she was about to open her mouth to protest when another voice from behind them whispered, “don’t. That’s way too risky.”

Startled, Keiko looked behind her, at the source of the voice. Right behind them was a man leaning forward in his seat, his black hair was sticking to the beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. He tugged at the collar of his shirt, “let me take care of this.”

Keiko glanced back at Light, who had crumpled up the piece of paper and put it back into his pocket, “do you have any proof that you’re not just his accomplice? Why should we trust you?”

Light had a point, there was a possibility that the man behind them was working with the man who had gotten on the bus, as scary as that thought was. Keiko bit her lip, and glanced back at the man behind them, who sighed in defeat.

He reached into his coat pocket and took out a badge, handing it to Light. Keiko fought a gasp, he was a part of the FBI?! What someone from the FBI doing sitting behind them? Did the FBI agent suspect that something was going to go wrong today?

Her thoughts were broken by Light, who handed back the man’s badge and said, “I trust you...and I guess for the time being I won’t ask what an FBI agent is doing on this bus in the first place. Do you have a gun?”

“Yeah I got one,” the man, Raye Penber, stated, “so if it comes down to it, know that you are in good hands.”

Light gave a slight nod and Keiko watched as the man at the front of the bus turned his attention back to the passengers. An older lady in the front had coughed, and he pushed the gun at the side of her head, “shut the hell up, you old hag! Do you want me to shoot you right here and now?!”

The old lady cowered in fear. The man grunted, and aimed his gun at the rest of the passengers, “the same goes to the rest of you guys!”

Light shifted slightly in his seat, and Keiko noticed as a slip of paper fell from his pocket.

No! If the gunman notices the paper and reads it, he’ll know what Light was planning on doing!

Keiko watched, her body now numb with panic, as Light cursed under his breath. He bent over in an effort to pick it up unnoticed, which didn’t go so well.

The gunman pointed his gun at Light, “you there! Hold it, what’s that paper? You thought you could be slick, didn’t ya?!”

“L-light,” Keiko stuttered, her hand tugging ever so lightly on his shirt.

The man walked forward, “ya little smart ass…thought you could pull a fast one on me. Tch.”

He reached forward, grabbing the note from the ground and unraveling it, “what’s this? Plans for a date today? How useless.”

He threw the slip of paper back at Light and Keiko breathed out a sigh of relief, so it hadn’t been the note that Light had written just a few minutes ago, but plans for their date today.

The man looked like he was about to turn around again when he suddenly looked towards the very back of the bus and let out a blood curdling scream, “W-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?! M-MONSTER!! HOW LONG WERE YOU HIDING BACK THERE?!”

Keiko turned her attention to where the man was pointing his gun at the back of the bus, but saw nothing unusual. There was nothing there but an empty seat.

What the hell?! Is this guy on some sort of drugs?!

Just then, the FBI agent stood up slightly, his voice ringing out, “he’s on PSP or something! He’s hallucinating! Everybody, get down now!”

Keiko felt Light’s arms wrap around her as the two hunched forward in their seat. She heard the man scream out more gibberish followed by a couple gunshots, which made a few people on the bus start screaming. Second later, she heard Raye stand up and walk forward, probably towards the gunman.

“Let me out of this bus! Let me off!” Keiko heard the gunman scream at the bus driver, who suddenly halted the bus. She felt Light straighten up, and she followed suit, though she could still feel the warmth of Light’s arm around her back. Looking out of the window, she saw the man rush out of the bus as soon as the driver opened up the doors, taking two steps at a time.

She could feel the nausea creeping up on her as she saw a car speeding towards the gunman, closing her eyes as she heard the sudden impact. There was no doubt in her mind that the man was dead. She thought back to the man on the motorcycle at the gas station.

Death is following me, isn’t it?

She shivered, and Light enveloped her into a hug, “it’ll be okay, we’re all safe now.”

Keiko knew that Light was probably right, but she still couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that there was something more sinister going on. She tried to brush it off, breaking the hug, and attempting a smile at Light, though deep in her stomach, there was still that pit.

“Woah there, don’t force yourself too much,” Light gave a curt laugh, “we should get out of here, don’t you think?”

Keiko nodded, and she followed Light and the rest of the passengers getting off of the bus. When the FBI agent caught sight of them, he headed over, “listen carefully, you two, I came to Japan as part of a secret investigation so the local police can’t find out that um...that I…”

“I understand,” Light said, and he grabbed Keiko’s hand, “and you understand too, don’t you, Keiko-chan?”

Keiko nodded, “we promise we won’t tell anyone that we met you.”

“That includes my father, of course,” Light said.

Raye nodded, “good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must be going now.”

With that, he left, walking through the crowd, and after a few seconds, Keiko could no longer see where he had gone.

Keiko turned to face Light, “what do you mean your father? What does he have to do with this?”

The wheels in her head were turning. An investigation. A secret one, at that. It couldn’t have something to do with the Kira case, could it?

“My father’s the chief of police at the NPA,” Light explained.

“I see,” Keiko replied, “so if your father were to find out, it would lead to trouble for this agent.”

Why is this agent being so secretive? If it is the Kira case he’s working on, shouldn’t he want the help of the Japanese police? Unless...no, he can’t be suspicious of them, can he?

Light nodded, “whatever he’s investigating, it must be pretty serious. We should stay out of it. Anyway, what do you want to do now?”

It was at this point that Keiko realized that Light was still holding her hand, and all thoughts of the Kira investigation slipped away. She couldn’t hide the warmth from creeping into her face as she let go, “I, uh, should probably go home, I guess. I’m feeling pretty tired.”

It wasn’t a lie. After all the events that had occurred in the past hour, Keiko felt pretty drained. She and Light walked to the next bus station, each of them wrapped up with their own thoughts. Light had an unreadable expression on his face, but on the inside, he was celebrating his victory.