Rise and Fall of Kira

Disclaimer–I do not own Death note. If I did, the stories would be way more suggestive, if you know what I mean. ;)

Warnings– None for this chapter. It’s basically an straight forward chapter.

I may have to repeat that I don’t have a beta-reader… so some parts may be not as refined as I’d like it to be. Some parts might get a little erratic as I’m kind of fast-forwarding some parts of the storylines from The Movie, Anime and Manga. That aside, I hope that you will continue to enjoy the plot that I’m weaving now!
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Once Light had gotten over his shock, he demanded to know what was going on.

And so his father started explaining it to him. It seemed that later in the day, when Light had gone out to lunch, L had hatched an plan in which he wrote his name in Light’s death note. L set the date of his death for 29 days later. The reason for this was that he was sure that Misa or Light would kill him if he happened to be alone in the building. L did this because he wanted to die on his own terms, and also to sacrifice himself in exposing the two as Death Note owners. He Also had set up cameras in the main headquarter room a long time ago, and so the whole team was able to watch from the room where Watari usually monitored everything. And since everyone had touched his death note, they were also able to see Ryku.
And so, as an result, everyone heard and witnessed the exchange between Light and Misa.

Ryku grinned widely at hearing the explanation. “ I get it. If his name was written first in your death note, then his name written in any other death notes wouldn’t affect whenever the person dies earlier or later.”

Light blinked, digesting this information. Now this, he didn’t honestly see coming…was this because he had been so caught up in having his memories returned to him? And here he thought that he had been clever enough to think of all possible scenarios which he could prepare for.

He couldn’t help but start laughing, which caused the others to stare at him like he was nuts. Save for his father, who still looked at him with somewhat sad eyes.

“So I guess that means I don’t have to keep up this charade anymore. it’s probably a good thing… I was starting to get tired of it. ” Light said, as he smirked.

“ Why?? ” Matsuda asked, looking at Light with an almost hurt expression. “ Why didn’t you tell us at all in the beginning? If you were truly against Kira like you told Misa… ”

Light sighed. “Honestly, Matsuda! Use your brain… you do have one, right?”

“ What?? ” Matsuda gasped at the insult.

“ If I was to come out at the start of this investigation just telling you about this notebook which caused people to die if you wrote their names in it… how would you react? ” Light asked.

“ Well… uh…. ” Matsuda scratched his head, pondering the question.

“I’ll tell you what would happen. ” Light explained, “ There’s two ways it could had gone. Number one, you all think I’m nuts and think I need professional help. Number Two… you all believe me if I provided proof, but you wouldn’t really trust me at all… in fact you would all suspect me of being the original Kira, while the real one would continue to go around killing people. That was why I did not tell any of you about it. I wasn’t sure if any of you would even believe that there was such a thing as a Notebook of Death.”

The group was quiet, as they thought about what they would had done in such a situation. Some of them hated to admit it, but Light was most likely right…

“ Just out of curiosity… ” L finally asked, “ I’d like to hear about how you came to own the death note. And also be exact about the date, please. ”

So Light told them about how he stumbled across the death note and took it home.

When he had first read the rules, he had thought it to be nothing but a twisted joke, until he got to the part about how a person would die of heart attacks if you did not specify how they would die.
He had been watching the news about those mysterious heart attack-related deaths which had been going on for almost two weeks at the time. And that part of the rules couldn’t help but make him morbidly curious.
So against his rational thought, he impulsively wrote the name of an criminal that had appeared on the news just then. And that criminal had died alright.
At this point he was slightly freaked out, and tried to tell himself that it was only Kira and not him who had killed.
He then promptly took the death note with him as he had gone out on a walk to clear his head. It was then at the train tracks, he had spotted another guy who was a known criminal from an public case which Light had been following. this criminal had raped serval women, killed them and their families. He had been let go not simply because of a lack of evidence, but because he had an damn good lawyer who somehow managed to find some kind of loophole. Thinking about it had made Light sick.
He then wrote that guy’s name in his death note, and sure enough…that guy had died. 40 seconds after he had written it down, just like the book had claimed.

“ It was then at that moment I went into an alleyway, and started throwing up in a trash can. That was when Ryku here appeared to me. Ryku can tell you this too, to confirm my story. ” Light replied, finishing his little tale.

Ryku snickered a little bit at the parts that was obviously different. It was amazing how tweaking somebody’s memory of events slightly could dramatically change their version of events so much.

“He heh, I remember that day when I met you. You practically begged me to kill you and take the death note back. You’ve really gone a long way, Light.” Ryku simply commented, refusing to elaborate on any parts of Light’s story besides the moment that they met.

L chewed on an sugar cube as he listened with wide eyes. Normally he wouldn’t had believed the story that Light had told him, believing it to be some poor attempt to gain sympathy from the others should he be caught as Kira. But somehow he couldn’t help but feel like Light was really telling the truth, for once. But then there was that thing with Misa… If he had really been Kira, he wouldn’t had killed Misa just yet considering her shinigami eyes would still had been of use to him even after he “died”. and why were Light so interested in killing Kira, like he told misa, if he was Kira?

“Light-kun… I would also like to know more about your reasons why you’re pursuing Kira. It’s true that you became motivated to join the task force when your girlfriend died, but I have video and evidence that clearly shows that you were investigating Kira long before your girlfriend died. Were there any special reasons for that…?” L phrased this question carefully, not wanting to upset Light in such a way where he would clam up.

Light stiffened slightly, as he instantly realized what L was really asking of him. But then he relaxed, locking his eyes with L’s.
“You want to know if I was originally going to support Kira, don’t you? Well… I’ll be honest with you. There was a brief period when I was wondering if what Kira was doing were really the right thing to do. I wondered if maybe in some way, I was fated to do the same thing as Kira. But at the same time, I wasn’t sure what kind of person Kira really were, and if he was honestly the sort of person I’d want to side with. After all, for all I knew, the real Kira might had been some raving maniac. So that was originally why I started investigating him, to find him and decide for myself then. ”

“And what would you done if you found him?” L simply asked.

Light answered just as easily. “Well, I thought of two scenarios which hinged on the two choices I would had made. In the first scenario, I decide that what Kira is doing is honestly the best for the world. So I support him by doing the same thing. In the second scenario, I decide that Kira’s not honestly the sort of person which I would want to ‘rule’ the world. Then I would kill him, in order to prevent him from killing anymore. Of course… it seemed that Kira inadvertently made me choose the second scenario by killing that woman and my girlfriend. or perhaps it was intentional, to send me a message without exposing himself. I don’t know. Anyway, He’s proven that he would kill innocent people who got into his way. That’s not what I would had done, which is the main difference between him and me. Plus it was hypotical of him to claim that he was creating paradise for the innocent people when he’s killing off the innocent who simply disagreed with his way. And I dislike hyrocities.”

L nodded. This all made perfect sense. He then popped another sugar cube into his mouth.

Mr. Yagami wasn’t as understanding though, and he rushed over to Light and started clutching his son’s shoulders as he started yelling. “But I don’t understand this at all!! This’s not the sort of thing that I would had raised you to do! What made you think this would be justice?”

Light looked startled for a second, and then he averted his eyes away from his father’s wounded expression. “I’m sorry, but when you become the owner of an death note, it tends to change you… So the Light you knew is dead.”

“What…? I don’t understand… ” Mr. Yagami started trembling. What was his son trying to tell him here?

Light was uncomfortable with the way his father was acting, so he choose to focus on L instead. “By that, I mean that the Death note seems to have some sort of mysterious power that manages to influence a person rather strongly.”

L stopped stacking the mashallows he was about to eat, and looked up. “ What do you mean by that, exactly? ”

“Well, for one thing, it seems to remove some inhibitions most humans might have even though the humans still have their own free will to chose how they would use the death note. for killing or not, that is. For instance, an person who wouldn’t normally even think of killing another human being no matter what… might start to think nothing of writing down people’s names in the death note once they became the owner. The first step to that is getting them to write down the name of somebody… they’re given the strong desire to test it out, no matter how scientifically unsound the concept might sound to them. After that, an strong bond between the death note and owner seems to form. It is also because of this bond that an owner loses all memory of it if he chooses to give it up.”

Ryku blinked. Jeez, Light even knew all that information? Seemed like he goofed worse than he thought when he had tried that mind-altering technique for the first time. He thought he had only let snippets of information slip though… but this? This was huge. Humans weren’t exactly supposed to know all this information… but on the other hand it wasn’t like he personally told them all this. It was only an accident, after all. So he couldn’t be held responsible for this. Plus it was going to be interesting to see what they did with this information…he heh.

“ I don’t get it… ” Mogi asked, “ Everyone on the team touched the death note… so why aren’t we feeling those urges?”

“ That’s because you’re not the owner, ” Light answered simply, “ Any person who isn’t the owner isn’t as affected. They only can do certain things, such as being able to see Shinigami who is linked with the death note. ”

L went back to stacking his mashallows and eating some of it. His mind was making all the pieces fall into place. So the Light who had acted so innocent… that was actually Light that was pre-Death Note. And the Light he knew now… this was due to the fact that he was an death note user.
Misa didn’t really have an dangerous personality neither, she had been just some bubbly, cheerful girl who had been attempting to act the part of a dark person but failed miserably. It made sense that she might be easily influenced to kill on an mass scale, especially if she was certain that she was doing the right thing. She did have a tendency to become so devoted to something that she became blind to what was exactly the right thing or not.
Of course this didn’t let Kira off the hook at all, because as Light said, there was still the free will issue. inhibitions were simply lowered, so aspects of the persons personality still remained. So Whoever Kira was, he still had it in him to willingly kill people on a large scale.

Mr. Yagami didn’t know whenever to be relived or troubled by this, so he just let go of Light and sat down to process all this.

“But.. If that’s true… ” Matsuda asked, “ Then there was no real need to kill Misa, were there? You could had just asked her to give up the death note, and she would just return to the way she was. ”

Light made a slight annoyed expression at the mention of Misa. “That’s where you’re wrong. Even without her memories, she can rather be fanatical in nature. She was willing to do anything to get what she wanted… And to me, that was what made her so dangerous. Imagine what would happen if she met the real Kira, and she didn’t love me as much as she claimed? Even without the Death note, she would be an hindrance.”

“But…she was so helpful to us even if she was the second Kira!” Matsuda almost moaned, not quite happy about Misa’s death.

Both Ukita and Mogi just sighed at this.

Light gripped the armrests of the chair he was sitting on rather tightly. He then muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear: “Besides, you have no idea what kind of things she put me though… I just simply had to return the favor… ”

“Speaking of which, I would also like you to tell everything about Misa. I know that she is the second kira already, but I would like to hear your story on how you came to meet Misa, and about the situations that you said she put you though… ” L replied.

And so Light spoke about how Death note owners with the Shinigami eyes could see the lifespans of others, expect for other death note owners. That was how Misa regonized him as an death note owner the day she first saw him, and also because of this she had assumed him to be Kira.
He also spoke about how he had to take her to his house, and up into his room where they had an private conversation. He had honestly told her at the time that he didn’t really trust her, and had hinted at the fact that he could (and would) kill her.
He then went into deep detail about how Rem had threatened to kill him, if he even made the slightest attempt to mistreat or murder Misa in any way… so that meant that he had to put up with Misa and make her happy in small ways.
Then Misa had told him that she wanted him to be her boyfriend, go out on dates, etc.

“So you see, the two of them were basically holding my life hostage if I didn’t do things to their liking… In fact, that was the reason why I gave up myself for containment that day in one of my elaborate plans to set her free. It was because Rem had threatened again to kill me if I didn’t rescue Misa. So I think all of you will understand why I quite honestly loathe her.” Light explained.

“No wonder why you ignored her when she asked to spend time with you, despite the fact that she was such an attractive girlfriend… ” Matsuda thought out loud.

“So you gave up your death note to Higuchi, as part of this plan… so did either two of you kill him as well? ” L asked.

“ Yes, it was me who killed him. ” Light answered.

“I just have to know… how many have you killed? Please answer me honestly… ” Mr. Yagami asked, his head bowed and his posture rigid…

“I haven’t killed quite as many as Kira has. But I guess it could be considered quite a fair amount. Inducing Misa and Higuchi, I would somewhere between six and nine. I had to kill a couple more criminals in order to keep Misa convinced that I was the original kira. I don’t know what she or Rem would had done to me if they found out that I had been lying to them about that. ”

Mr. Yagami was about to say something, but L cut in.

“Light-kun. We’re going to discuss what you’ve told us, so will you please go to your bedroom until we call on you?” L asked.

Light gave a curt nod, and then got up to walk towards the bedroom where he had been staying in since the day he became free from being chained to L.

Mr. Yagami just rubbed his forehead with one hand, wondering where he had gone wrong with his son.
“ I’m going to ask your opinions on Yagami Light, Gentlemen. ” L said, “ I would like to hear your thoughts on what he has told us, and whenever you think he should be convicted or not.”

“ What do you mean, whenever he should be convicted or not? It’s obvious that he’s killed a lot of people… don’t you think he should be held accountable for that?! ” Ukita replied.

He then realized what he had said in front of Mr. Yagami. “ Uh.. I’m sorry you had to hear that… ”

Mr. Yagami shook his head, a haunted and weary expression on his face. “ No… you’re right. My son should be held accountable for his actions. ”

Mogi just simply nodded at this.

Matsuda just rubbed the back of his head, not quite sure of this. He was frowning, as if in deep thought.

“ It’s true that he should be held accountable for his actions. However… if you think about what he has told us, and his behavior when we were watching him in his house near the start of the invetgestion… ” L pointed out, “ We have video of him having trouble sleeping, and then there was that moment Light-kun told us about, where he threw up in an trash can after he realized that he had an notebook of death in his possession. Then we have that information from… Ryku … where he said just earlier about Light begging the shinigami here to kill him off and take the death note back when they first met. ” With that L looked at Ryku who was still in the room, watching this unfold with great interest.

“ What’s your point? ” Ukita asked.

“ If what he told us was true…then that’s a indication that Light-kun has… or had, a strong conscience which was bothering him. That’s normally not a trait that a serial killer would have. If it’s true about the death note having influence over the owner, then it would the presence of the Death note itself which actually drove Light-kun to kill some more after he had tested it. Especially if Light-kun believed it would help him capture Kira, and put an end to his reign of death.” L answered.

“ That’s right!! ” Matsuda blurted out, “The Light-kun we all know wouldn’t do such things!! He was corrupted by the evil power, that’s all there is to it! ”

Ukita and Mogi looked at Matsuda dubiously, not quite sure if they could believe that so easily like Matsuda did.

Mr. Yagami’s eyes widened at this. He so desperately wanted to believe that it was really just the fault of the death note and nobody else, and that his son was truly innocent. But…

“You’re not going to honestly let him off the hook are you, Ryuuzaki?” He asked, his eyes meeting with L’s.

L shook his head. “No. Like I said before… he still needs to be held accountable for his own actions. After all, Light did tell us that while humans’ inbitions would be lowered, it doesn’t remove free will at all. No matter what the situation was, Light still made the choice to do what he did. I don’t believe he should be convicted in the same way Kira would be… but of course I’m afraid that I’m not exactly neutral regarding his fate right now. So I would be the worst person for you to trust to make such a decision right now. ”

Mogi looked at L in surprise, along with Mr. Yagami.
Mogi asked, ”What do you mean by that, L?“

L let out a small inaudible sigh. “ By that, I mean… that I have discovered that I seem to have developed feelings for Light-kun despite the fact that I was doing my best to be neutral towards him. ”

The others gasped in surprise, and Matsuda asked in an all too loud voice: “ You mean to tell me that you’re a…Ho..Ho…Hom… Homosexual?!”

Mr. Yagami’s face blanched at this idea. The times his son and Ryuuzaki spent chained together…

L frowned in annoyance at Matsuda’s words. He then went on to give quite a lengthy explanation. He so despised having to explain every little thing like this.
“No, that was not what I meant. I was simply referring to the time Light-kun and I spent together on the case. Most especially during the time we were chained together. In such a situation, it would be normal for two men to develop a bond with each other. I’ve learned a lot about Light-kun during that time. I’ve come to admire his intelligence and everything else about him. That’s why I think it would be quite a shame for him to die, especially when it turns out that he may not even be Kira. He would be quite helpful in catching Kira, as seeing he has a unique viewpoint regarding Kira. Also there’s the issue with the fact that I still consider Light-kun to be my friend. That’s why I’m asking you guys to discuss it and see if you agree with me or not. If the majority of you think that he should be tried and convicted for his crimes, then I will go along with your decision, despite my personal feelings.”

Matsuda had a dumbstruck expression on his face. “ Oh. ” he responded lamely.

Mr. Yagami stared at L. All this time he had thought that L was an heartless bastard, who seemed to love saying that his son was the devil’s spawn, so to speak. It seemed like he would have to revise that image of L.

He then spoke up. “I would have to sit out of the discussion too. As Light’s father, I’m afraid that I too cannot be objective.”

The others nodded, and then they went to speak together as an group in an far corner where L and Mr. Yagami couldn’t hear them too well.

The two sat side by side in silence which was only periodically interrupted by small sounds from L’s constant chewing of sugar the sugar cubs and the mashallows.

It was quite frankly the longest moment in his life that Soichiro Yagami had experienced so far.
Finally, the three men came back and told them: “We’ve come to an decision. ”

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Another long chapter from me. I was basically working on the story here as you can see. There’s a intimate yet awkward situation in the next chapter! ;)

Review as always… it helps to hear from my readers what they think.