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The Sugar Cube Fort	By : sashocirrione Category: Death Note > Het-Male/Female Views: 2334 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
CHAPTER 13: DON'T HOLD BACK
Rem's mind raced. This was it, wasn't it? In fifteen minutes or so, the entire investigation team except Light and Aizawa would probably know that Misa was certainly the Kira who had been killing criminals lately. And, L was smarter than Rem had thought. He hadn't asked Midora that many questions, but he'd known exactly which ones to ask. Those answers he'd gotten... he'd probably already been suspecting the truth in those matters before Midora confirmed it. If Rem held back at all any longer, it would be incredibly risky for Misa.
Rem said, "Ryuzaki, I do know the identity of the new Kira. I can't tell you until you yourself are completely sure, but I think you'll know tonight."
L said, "We'll know Kira's identity just from the location? Then, it almost has to be Misa. Mogi and Chief Yagami are already halfway to Misa's place. But that doesn't make sense. Light is too smart to let an old suspect operate as Kira so soon after being cleared. Or, is Light not behind it this time?"
Rem said, "It was a trap. You were supposed to pursue the new Kira and die in the attempt."
L sat down in a chair and pulled his knees up to his chest. "Is that trap still dangerous?"
"No," Rem said, "at least not in the same way as before. Originally, it was an attempt to try to force me to kill you and Watari. Now, it is only dangerous if the new Kira notices surveillance, panics, and disobeys orders. The new Kira knows everyone's face and name except for your's and Watari's. Furthermore, the shinigami Ryuk is keeping watch for any kind of spying or pursuit and will warn the new Kira."
L got on his cellphone again and said, "Mogi, Chief Yagami, be extremely careful. Please just confirm the location and do not approach the building closely. Leave as soon as you are sure which building it is. Ryuk is keeping watch for people such as yourselves, and your faces and names are already known to the new Kira."
There was a pause for a moment, and then L said, "No, that would just risk your lives and then the main Kira might get away. The new Kira isn't a morning person, so give me until noon tomorrow. No new criminals should be killed between now and then."
L stopped talking and sighed in an exasperated way. After listening for a bit, he said, "Chief Yagami, if you risk giving us away tonight, not only will many more criminals die in the future, but it is also likely that every single person on the investigation team except Watari and myself will be slaughtered. You do not want the blood of your co-workers on your hands."
Finally, L seemed to hear a satisfactory answer and he put his cellphone away. He looked at Rem and said, "So, the new Kira has orders from the main Kira. What do those orders say?"
"To wait to kill until photos of L and Watari have been received, and then to kill everyone at once. The new Kira has the shinigami eyes. The new Kira has also hidden the death note away from home and only kills using scraps, with the hiding place for the scraps constantly changing. If the new Kira is carrying any scraps, these would be few enough that they could be easily destroyed at the first sign of trouble. The new Kira is to receive the miniature camera with the photos on it by picking it up from under the third bush from the left on the west side of the building, in a camera blind spot."
L shuffled a bit nervously, and then one hand began fiddling with the knocked-over remains of the sugar cube fort on the end table beside his chair. He picked up one cube, popped it in his mouth, and said, "So, even though a shinigami is supposed to kill humans, if you had killed me to protect the new Kira, who is almost certainly Misa, you would have died. Why? What rule would that break?"
Rem sighed. She did not, absolutely did not, want to say this. But, L probably had it mostly figured out anyway, and appearing to be non-cooperative was now the biggest risk to Misa. Rem said, "If a shinigami is in love with a human, that shinigami is not allowed to kill for the purpose of saving that human's life."
Just then, L's cellphone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, delicately holding it between two fingers, and said, "Yes?"
After listening for a few moments, he said, "Then, continue following the plan. Get away from there completely, circle around the city aimlessly for an hour or so, and then come back to headquarters."
L put his phone down on the table next to the sugar cube fort, picked up two more cubes and ate them, and then said, "There is not the slightest doubt any more. Misa is the one currently operating as Kira. Is Ryuk also in love with Misa? Is that why he helps her?"
"No," Rem said, "Ryuk works for apples. Other than that, he won't help humans, and he certainly won't kill for apples. If he weren't so neutral, you would have been killed very early in your pursuit of the first Kira."
"But," L said, "if you are in love with Misa, and yet Ryuk is the one now with Misa, then this notebook must be Misa's original notebook. Am I correct?"
Rem explained then about the plan of switching death notes and shinigami, so that Rem would be with the investigators, ready to strike if Misa was threatened, and so that Ryuk would be with Misa, ready to shorten her lifespan with another eye deal, and each death note would be in the proper place to restore the memories of its former user. Throughout the explanation, she used the phrase "the first Kira" to refer to Light and didn't go into much detail about him, because L still wasn't one hundred percent certain Light was Kira, but Rem was now able to refer to Misa directly.
L was starting to rebuild the fort of sugar cubes as a high, skinny tower. Delicately holding a cube in his long fingers, he carefully balanced it as he set it down, in perfect alignment with the ones below it so not even a single crack showed where one sugar cube ended and the next began.
His eyes intense and focused on the work in front of him, he said, "Then, considering everything you've told me, you must want freedom for Misa. I will do my best, but, with the number of people she has murdered, it will be extremely difficult. In particular, if we don't bring in the original Kira with solid evidence, then there is almost no chance of a lighter punishment for Misa. I understand that you still have the option of killing me if I don't satisfy you, but I think there are now too many people who know Misa is the new Kira for you to ever kill all of them, so killing me would not do you much practical good. Also, even if every investigator dies, I think it likely that Kira will kill Misa as soon as he finds a pawn who doesn't know his name and therefore could never betray him."
Rem felt a heavy weight on her heart. This was so difficult. And, much of the difficulty had come directly from Misa herself, making one terrible decision after another. It just wasn't a good idea to be suicidally stupid and a serial killer at the same time. Had Misa been doomed from the time death and destruction first entered her life? Rem had thought that enough power would solve Misa's problems, but it seemed power only harmed her. The more power Misa got, the more she surrendered herself to any user or abuser in her vicinity. Sometimes, Rem wondered if Misa would have rejected Light if he had turned out to be loving and respectful instead of a cold-hearted manipulator.
Rem said, "I understand the situation. But I did come very close to killing myself for Misa's sake."
Rem's voice started choking up. She was trying to hold in the sobs. She said, "I have never been rational when it comes to Misa. I can't let her go, not after everything that's happened. I...I don't know what I would do if you killed her or made her miserable for the rest of her life."
Then, Rem went into the pantry. She couldn't let L see her cry, but if she left his suite of rooms, Light might observe her. Rem sat on the floor, grew out her wings and wrapped them around herself, and then rocked back and forth, sobbing hysterically. Even this plan was terribly flawed, a desperate last-ditch attempt to halt Misa's rush towards destruction. Rem tried to understand what she felt for Misa. The girl was an evil murderer, very irritating, and rarely showed Rem anything resembling affection. What was it about Misa?
There was the aspect of feeling sorry for her, but Misa was so hostile and self-destructive that she really should have worn out Rem's good will already. It didn't make any sense, but, ever since Jealous died, Rem had felt a particularly weird compulsion to help Misa and care for her. The feeling just nagged at her. She wanted so badly to see Misa happy.
Was it because, without Jealous, Misa was the closest thing she had to a friend? Yes, that must be it. Rem had liked Misa and felt sorry for her before Jealous died, but ever since his death, the feelings had been overwhelming. She must have transferred everything she felt for Jealous to Misa. If that was the case, Rem didn't really love Misa so much as she just clung to Misa pathetically in the absence of anything else. If so, her sudden attachment to L and, to a lesser extent, Matsuda, made more sense.
Nobody loves you. You're just a cold pile of bones, surrounded by death and misfortune. Misa is lost to you, and L doesn't love you. He's only known you a few days and you're not even his species.
Being able to analyze it didn't make the hurt any better. Rem felt like she was mourning Misa, saying goodbye to her for the last time, without even the comfort of being able to do it in person. The next time she saw Misa, Misa would probably know Rem had betrayed Light. And then... it wouldn't be indifference with bouts of hostility and a few rare moments of camaraderie any more, it would be nothing but fierce, blinding hatred, unending and relentless. Misa would never, ever forgive Rem. She would feel so very betrayed. Then Rem wished so, so hard that she could have Jealous back again. If it were possible to restore Jealous by killing Misa, Rem would do it in an instant. But, there wasn't any way to get him back.
Rem rocked back and forth on the floor of the pantry for the longest time. Finally, the despair shrank to a kind of dull sadness, a pain overshadowed by tiredness. For the first time since Higuchi had been caught, Rem considered the possibility of actually sleeping. In a shinigami, sleep and tiredness had nothing to do with each other, but sleeping would pass the time, and maybe when she woke up, she'd be in a better mood. No, there was too much at stake here. At any moment, big things could start happening. There could be missed opportunities if Rem slept.
Rem stood up, stretched herself, and then shrank her wings back down until they turned into bony spikes on her shoulders. She exited the pantry and saw L crouched in a chair in front of a desk with a computer on it. Coming closer, she saw several different views of surveillance video, all showing Light in his room. An additional view showed what looked like a 3-D line drawing of the same room, minus the furniture and Light. Light was pacing sometimes, and also using a monitor in his room to look at views of the main investigation room and both entrances to the building. He was still in his regular clothing, not pajamas, and it looked like he intended to pull an all-nighter too.
Rem felt a kind of sick pleasure watching Light. If the plan went well, he should be confirmed as Kira before the end of the coming day. It would be so nice to see his little god-trip come to a screeching halt. It was the only really nice thing about this plan. Light would finally get punished for all the crap he'd put Misa through, the way he'd so callously exposed her to danger and used her feelings over and over again.
Rem imagined the moment he realized his defeat, with herself walking over to him and saying, "You pathetic human. Do not ever try to cross a shinigami, or this is what happens."
It was a sweet, sweet fantasy. She felt a strong connection with L in that moment. They were working together to bring down Misa's hated enemy. Yes, it was nice to spy on Light like this. Light looked slightly nervous, even though he must know that L might be watching him. The situation was getting to him, breaking through his calm reserve just a bit. The mask had a few cracks in it.
Then L received a call on his cellphone. It was Watari. L talked to him a bit about some videotapes, and made sure Watari wasn't having health issues any more and could arrive at exactly 8 AM. Then L went back to just watching Light, his dark eyes deep and mysterious with that uniquely L-like expression, something that was intelligent, busy, but unreadable all at once. He periodically drank some tea or ate a bit from a badly melting ice cream sundae that was more marshmallows and chocolate sauce than actual ice cream. After a time, the investigators arrived, and Light immediately jumped up and left. As he passed the door of his room, the doorway on the thing that looked like a 3-D line drawing of his room flashed briefly red, much stronger red on the upper right side. In an almost absent-minded way, L said, "He has it. It looks like in his sleeve."
Then, L was constantly changing the video feeds to show Light's progress as he went to meet the returning investigators. Always, one view was the line-drawing thing, and each doorway Light passed through flashed red on the 3-D line drawing in the same lopsided way. L looked pleased and very focused. He dumped the rest of the bag of marshmallows in his melting sundae and began eating it faster. Rem said, "What is it?"
With a mouth full of marshmallows, L said, "None of the others know this, but this building was built with the idea that someone working here might get cameras past the security checkpoints, so there are very sensitive detectors built into every doorway that are completely secret. This shows me Light has that camera in his sleeve right now."
"Ryuzaki, will you arrest him now?"
L made a tiny stack of three marshmallows on his spoon and then held it at eye level, gazing at it as if it were the most fascinating thing ever. He said, "Finding the camera on him would be very incriminating, but if I can get him to take pictures of Watari and myself too, it will be even better. We can wait."
L turned up the sound, and listened carefully to Light and the investigators discussing supposedly losing Midora while following her. Light's body language improved at once. He was standing straighter, looking confident, and even having very smug little smiles from time to time. They were rather small and subtle, though. To anyone who didn't know what a lying bastard Light was, the difference shouldn't really be noticeable, or if it were noticed it would be attributed to staying up so very late that the tiredness was finally starting to slip away. Matsuda was clearly on coffee duty, running back and forth constantly. Aizawa had never appeared. Rem guessed that Matsuda must have decided the man needed some time to himself instead of pulling an all-nighter at work. After a while, the conversation turned to where Ryuzaki was.
At that moment, L turned on the speakers in the main investigation room and said, "I appreciate your concern, but I will be down there at 8AM, when Watari arrives. I have made the test of the 13-day rule a priority and I have a number of rather complicated confidential arrangements to make so that it will be possible to safely transport the notebook. Please use the notes I left to continue rebuilding the database until I come downstairs."
As soon as L had turned off the connection, Rem said, "Ryuzaki, Misa agreed to visit headquarters twice a day from now on."
L said, "Then, we probably can truly end everything before noon."
After that, L said nothing more. He just continued to watch Light and the other investigators as the hours ticked away. Finally, at precisely 8AM, L saw Watari's car driving into the underground parking garage. He lightly leapt from his chair in a cat-like movement, picked up the death note between two fingers, and left his rooms.
A/N (Author's Note):
In case you didn't get L's one-sided conversation with Soichiro, it was about Soichiro wanting to arrest Misa immediately to be sure she wouldn't kill any more criminals, and L being exasperated because it would be likely to lead to a situation where there wasn't enough proof. Basically a repeat of the Yotsuba-related conflict in canon. Soichiro is the goodest character in Death Note, but he's quite an obstruction at times, and if he had the ability to seriously suspect his son, Light probably would have lost. Being good doesn't necessarily lead to good results.
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- 14
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The Sugar Cube Fort