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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
- 22
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CHAPTER 23: EMERGENCY I
Matsuda came to work the next day with red-rimmed eyes and behaving as if he had a hangover. He kept a box of tissues next to him constantly, blew his nose a lot, and made frequent trips to the bathroom that often lasted quite a while. All of the task force members were quiet and subdued, and Soichiro was not present. L received a message saying that Soichiro had returned to the NPA. He couldn't just sit at home, he was used to working, and he didn't want to go back to the building where his son had spent the last months of his life. Ryuk was back towards noon, and he was looking untroubled, even smug, if Rem was reading him right. She cornered him in his apple-eating room and asked what had happened.
Ryuk said, "Oh, Nu was very helpful."
But then he refused to go into any details. Did Nu know some way for shinigami to rid themselves of their emotions? If so, it might prove useful. Rem knew she might very well need that service in a couple of decades, when L's lifespan was scheduled to run out. If she didn't kill herself to save him, she would be devastated afterwards. But, there was also something incredibly terrifying about not being able to feel. Maybe it would be best to die for L, if it was an attacker that was fated to kill him. If it was going to be diabetes or something, Rem wouldn't have that choice.
Over that day, the task force members worked on the report for Interpol and spent a lot of time brainstorming about anything that could possibly go wrong with it. It was very important to present Higuchi as the first Kira, and to present the second Kira as an unknown person who had most likely committed suicide when they took over the judgments in Higuchi's absence and then realized they didn't have the stomach for killing so many people.
The other task was getting Misa committed to an insane asylum for the rest of her life. L had a good plan, to be launched during a live television interview about Misa's upcoming movie. It fit exactly with Ryuk's kind of humor, so it only took a small bribe to get him to do the deed.
Rem couldn't watch something so cruel. She went out flying during the live broadcast and didn't return for hours. But, then, she kept seeing stuff about it on the covers of magazines and hearing snatches of conversation about it on the streets, so before two days had passed she just had to know, to see it directly. L showed her the recording. It was sad, but not as devastating as Rem had feared.
Ryuk made himself visible to Misa during her live interview and terrorized her, chasing her around the stage and bullying her into threatening to kill herself and also claiming that she'd poisoned the interviewer's coffee. L made sure that the coffee falsely tested positive for poison when it was examined. With that one event, Misa had established in front of a rather large audience that she hallucinated, that she was a danger to herself, and that she was a danger to others. These would not be easy facts to erase or gloss over. And, L would continuously bribe her psychiatrists to say she hadn't improved enough to be let out of the insane asylum.
Rem only toured the place once. It was beautiful, like a mansion inside and out, and the staff all looked kind and unstressed. The gardens outside were lush, full of fountains and flowers and wide green lawns where asylum inmates played frisbee or relaxed with sun umbrellas and lemonade. It didn't look anything like a prison, or like a nasty insane asylum. Rem found Misa sitting in an overstuffed yellow chair in front of an ornate window, like something out of an old-world library, a window that had a decorative trim of stained glass designs around the edges and was nearly as tall as two regular stories.
Misa looked sad, but composed, and she had a therapy cat on her lap, a trained animal used to help relieve stress and increase mental stability. The cat had white fur with orange patches scattered here and there, and its eyes were an intense green. It was one of the most perfectly calm animals Rem had ever seen. It turned its head lazily to look exactly at Rem, following Rem with its eyes, totally unafraid as Rem drew close. Rem stood over Misa for some time, perhaps ten minutes, perhaps half an hour, completely silent.
Then Rem said, "Goodbye, Misa. You were a mistake of mine. I'm not rational with you, so it is best if we're apart. I do not understand why I love you, but I feel it even now. It is partly because of you I've seen the truth that I need in life. I need to seek love that helps me, not love that is destructive. I'm very sorry that you could not have done the same."
Then Rem left, and she never saw Misa alive again.
L's first visit to the shinigami realm was six days after Light's death. He quizzed Rem in great detail about the few times she'd seen gods of death bring animals to the shinigami realm. She'd never seen a human there, though she'd heard a few vague rumors of it; nothing detailed or certain. None of the pets had lived longer than a couple of weeks, though that was most likely because shinigami tended to forget about things like feeding and watering animals. Rem did remember one shinigami who had a lizard pet and tried to give it seawater to drink.
L didn't take any chances. He wore a full biohazard suit and brought along his own air supply. He'd also been warned not to show his face to shinigami at all if he could help it. Many of them were too lazy to even go to the viewing portals to kill humans, and if they happened to remember his name and face when they were in the middle of a card game and needed some lifespan, L would die of a heart attack. Rem also told L that gods of death might get interested in his "condition" and cause trouble with the shinigami king if they could see his name and lifespan.
When L arrived, the first thing he did was set out a bunch of lightweight equipment he'd brought along and then took some samples of the sand, the air, and some vegetation in little vials. He took readings from a lot of instruments, and had Rem fly him up inside the perpetual thick fog bank that was the only sky, so he could take readings and samples from there too. Then he returned home and did more tests. Within a few hours, he told Rem that the air was fully breathable and there was no life whatsoever, no microorganisms at all. Even the vegetation didn't seem to be alive by normal standards. It read as having no water content and, when crushed, turned into something like sand.
L sent off samples to various labs to be further examined by experts, and then immediately returned with Rem to the shinigami realm, this time wearing his usual clothing and a close-fitting simple mask of white plastic, with eye holes and a mouth hole. On this trip he was determined to interview as many shinigami as possible. L wasn't allowed to see or speak with the shinigami king. He wasn't even allowed to receive a description of the shinigami king's appearance. Any shinigami who told him that would die. But anyone other than the king was fully accessible. They just needed to touch their death notes to L in order to become visible and audible.
Some of the gods of death were immensely curious about Rem bringing a pet human and gathered around him to look. Midora plainly told her, "Oh, that's cute, but don't you know he'll die soon? Living creatures always die here."
There were other shinigami who couldn't be less interested, particularly some of the card game addicts. Rem had a great deal of trouble getting them to even look in L's direction, let alone touch him with their death notes. L decided to leave most of them for another day.
Then, when L had gotten to the point where about half of all shinigami were visible to him, Ryuk approached, with a shinigami following him that Rem had never seen before. The new shinigami was one of the more human-shaped ones, with a skeletal theme and wearing some clothing. Ryuk's smile was incredibly smug.
When the new shinigami stepped out from behind Ryuk, and Rem got a good look at its face, she saw the name "Quiv" and the longest lifespan she'd ever seen. She tried to do a quick calculation from shinigami time into human years. About 100,000 years? Could that be right? How had a newborn shinigami killed so many humans, so quickly?
Rem said, "There is a new shinigami there, behind Ryuk."
L snapped to attention immediately. He said, "I'm particularly interested in that one. How often do new shinigami appear?"
"Oh, I think about once every hundred years or so. It used to be more frequent when I was younger."
Rem paused, and then, as Ryuk and the new shinigami came almost right to them, she protectively placed herself halfway in front of L. She said, "Be careful. This new shinigami has killed a lot of humans."
Quiv said, "I haven't killed anyone."
Then Quiv looked down at L and said, "That's a human? I thought those things were supposed to have names and lifespans."
Ryuk said, "It's because he's wearing a mask. Go ahead; touch him with your death note. I think you'll find it interesting to talk with him."
Quiv shrugged in a noncommittal kind of way, but he stretched out one hand with his death note and tapped L's head gently.
Quiv leaned down, so his white, skull-like face and glowing red eyes were on the same level as L's head.
Quiv said, "Hi, I'm Quiv. I understand you're a human? Is that interesting?"
Without waiting for a reply, Quiv sat down on the sand below him, looked at the sky in an immensely bored way, and let out a sigh.
L still wasn't saying anything, but just kept looking, his eyes almost hidden by the mask.
Finally, L whispered, "Ryuk, why is Quiv wearing Light's tie as a headband? Did you give it to him, or..."
Ryuk said, "Humans are so interesting! I thought you might figure it out."
Rem asked, "What?"
Ryuk laughed heartily and then said, "When I asked Nu to help me, she had a theory. She thought that perhaps humans who use death notes become shinigami when they die, but the last time she paid attention to anything like that, the times didn't match up. However, there were a few situations when a human killed an immense number of other humans and a new shinigami appeared almost immediately after that death note user died. Nu thought that perhaps the shinigami body forms fastest for those who kill the most, so that the usual death note user, who only kills perhaps three or fewer people, would take centuries to appear as a shinigami."
L said, "And you searched, and found Light immediately because he killed so many. What do you plan to do now, Ryuk?"
Rem said, "Are you sure this is true, Ryuk?"
Ryuk said, "Look at his lifespan! Have you ever seen anything like it? Light was a killer like no other. He killed off most of the world's major criminals in just the first five days he had his death note, and he tended to kill twenty or more each day from then on, until he gave up ownership about six months later. That's a lot of killing."
Rem said, "Then, Misa will be here! And, she'll be a death god!"
The thought stirred hope and despair in her at once. That Misa would continue to live after her seven-year lifespan ran out, that was a happy thought. But, on the other hand, shinigami did not have a pleasant existence. Although, most of them weren't that unhappy or that bored. If you really felt things that strongly, you'd do something about it. Most shinigami just didn't care enough, feel enough, for even their own boredom to be too unpleasant. Misa might be caught in a world of unfeeling numbness, neither happy nor unhappy.
L asked, "Is Higuchi here yet?"
Ryuk replied, "Nope. He killed a lot, but he was kind of lazy and he was at it for a shorter time. Maybe a couple more weeks? I don't know how to crunch the numbers on this."
Ryuk paused and sat on the ground next to Quiv, then continued, "I bet it'll be ages before Raye Penber appears. You know, L, Light tricked Raye into writing his co-workers' names on some death note paper."
Quiv said, "Is this the human you spoke of, Ryuk?"
Ryuk said, "Yeah, this is the great detective, L Lawliet."
Rem said, "Ryuk, I told you I'd torment you if you did anything that would lead to L's death."
Ryuk replied, "Yeah, I know, but, how could I possibly resist telling Light his own history?"
Rem turned to Quiv, to Light, and said, "That goes for you too. If you kill L, I will discover a way to make your life unpleasant. I don't care what it is or how long it takes me to discover it. Once I find out how, I will punish you to the end of your life."
L said, "Ryuk, you still haven't answered my question. What do you plan?"
"Oh," Ryuk said, "I've already done it. I told Light everything about his history. I even dragged him over to a viewing portal and had him look at most of the task force before he got bored and wandered away. He could kill everyone except you and Mogi right now if he wanted to. But I told him that, if he decided on that plan, it would be no fun unless he went to the human world and killed in person. From now on, I'm just going to watch him and see what he does."
L said, "Then, Light, what do you plan to do?"
Light said, "My name is Quiv. I want to sit down for a long time, but Ryuk keeps making me get up and taking me places. He says it will get interesting eventually."
L said, "Do you plan to kill anyone?"
Light said, "I don't know. I think I might kill you, since you were my enemy. If my former self put so much energy into trying to kill you, I really ought to complete it, I suppose. I'm not afraid of Rem's threat. If I had her following me around and bothering me, perhaps things wouldn't be so boring. The others who chased Light, maybe I should kill them too. It might make me feel a sense of accomplishment."
Then, L launched into a long conversation with Light and Ryuk where he tried to bribe them into not killing any task force members. He offered an endless supply of the best apples and lots of other fruit, along with access to the best video games, other games, and television. L described what he was willing to do in great detail and insisted that if Light was doubtful about any of these pleasures, he should at least test them out before killing anyone.
Ryuk remained neutral, constantly insisting that he was interested in the bribes but that Light would be making his own decisions. Light remained noncommittal throughout the entire conversation, and displayed more and more boredom and detachment as it went on.
Finally, L said, "I don't think I can say anything else that will matter, but, if you do kill, think about killing only me instead of everyone. They were never your real enemies; in fact they were your tools most of the time. I was the only real enemy you had."
Light looked at L with his glowing red eyes, smiled, and said, "I might do that. There is something special I would like to try with your death. If I decide to kill any of you who threatened Light or if I decide to take your bribes, I'll come to that building where you all gather."
With that, the conversation was over, and L hurried back to the human world. The moment that Rem felt that weird flip where gravity reversed and found herself looking at the blue sky of the human world, L pulled out his cellphone, and said, "Mogi, cover up your face right now. I don't care if you have to put a pillowcase over your head, or a paper bag with eyeholes poked in it. Keep your face covered continuously up to the emergency meeting in headquarters in two hours. If you can't leave the house in a mask, call Watari and have him pick you up."
Then, as Rem was still in the process of descending from the clouds, L called each of the task force members in turn, including Soichiro, and told them about the emergency meeting. He did not say anything about why it was being called.
When he finished with his calls, he said, "Rem, you truly never suspected that new shinigami were spawned from human death note users?"
"No, I am sorry. If I thought so, I would have done everything in my power to keep Light alive."
L was silent for a few moments, and then said, "I don't blame you. It is as you say; knowledge is disappearing from your realm. Also, with the usual time delay, and new names, and no memories, it would be difficult to make the connection."
At the meeting, the task force members were much less understanding. L waited until everyone was present before saying anything, but his white plastic mask, which he continued to wear, had already freaked them out, along with Mogi's mask. Soichiro looked like a complete wreck, older and more worried than ever, and Rem felt immensely sorry for him.
L started by saying, "First, I want to apologize. The problems we experienced with Kira are not over, and it is my fault for not thinking of all possibilities and investigating them. We might die. I have been doing my best to bribe our way out of this situation, but I'm not sure if it will work."
Mogi said, "What happened?"
L said, "Light is alive and he has another murder notebook. Light hasn't acted only because he has lost his memories, all of them, but Ryuk has told him everything that happened and is trying to goad him into causing trouble."
Aizawa said, "I knew it, Ryuzaki. You're his friend, so you just had to fake his death, didn't you? Will you ever stop doing things behind our backs? I'm sick of your methods."
"No," L said, "Light really did die. People who murder with the notebook turn into shinigami after they die. Apparently, there was only one shinigami who knew this until last week, when Ryuk found out. I should have suspected it."
L drew his knees in closer to his chest and huddled, looking as if he expected everyone to yell at him. His face was truly unreadable with that plastic mask covering it, but his eyes were downcast.
Soichiro said, "My son, is a shinigami?"
Soichiro pressed a hand to his forehead, and then sought out one of the couches, slumping down in it.
L said, "It is best if you do not think of him as your son. He doesn't remember being human, he might kill on a whim, and his personality is different. Ryuk has a lot of difficulty even convincing him to walk around, since he's been infected by the passivity that most shinigami seem to be cursed with. If it weren't for Ryuk, Light might just sit on a rock for the next few years. Also, Light insists on being called Quiv. He says that is his name now. If he comes here, perhaps calling him Quiv will make him think better of you."
Mogi said, "Is that the reason for the masks? Light will kill us?"
L said, "Yes. Light has seen everyone's face and name except for Mogi and myself. I plan to wear this mask until the situation resolves. However, it might be pointless because Light could simply tear off the masks if he really wants to. Light did say he would come kill us in person if that's what he decides to do. He won't kill any of us from a distance."
And then, the entire room erupted into a frenzied conversation of everyone talking at once, expressing fear, and anger, and disbelief that Rem didn't know such a basic fact and perhaps this proved she was plotting against them, and blaming L for the situation. L stayed silent the entire time, quietly letting the emotional outbursts run their course while he picked up various pastries from a plate in front of him, messily jamming them through the mouth hole in his mask. His entire demeanor was childish and eerie at the same time. His eyes looked strange, deep within those eyeholes.
When the emotional tone of the conversation became less panicked and more reasoned, Matsuda said, "So, what do we do? Trick Light into breaking a rule that will kill him?"
L said, "Ryuk expected that, and he says he already schooled Light in all the rules to avoid that possibility. Even if Ryuk is lying or Light is now idiotic enough to be tricked that way, trying to kill Light would perhaps make him want to kill us in return and also make the bribery attempts less effective. I think we need to focus on the bribery as our main strategy."
Then L explained in detail all the bribes he had offered, and his plans to build a massive entertainment/eating room in headquarters for exactly that purpose, with video games and apples as the main components of the bribe deal. After a time, L had managed to get everyone on his side, although Aizawa was still extremely angry about the situation and Soichiro was simply confused and overwhelmed. Rem saw all sorts of emotions moving through Soichiro's face in thick profusion, including happiness. Soichiro eventually left to go back to his job, saying he would stick with the NPA from now on unless he was called into the Kira investigation.
Everyone was talking among themselves about the implications of not really having the case closed, and how it would now be a waiting game to see whether a shinigami's whim would get them killed or not. L stayed out of it, simply crouching by himself and eating by shoving things through the hole in his mask.
Matsuda ran out of things to say before anyone else, and wandered over to L.
Matsuda said, "Wow, are you going to keep wearing that thing? It makes you look really creepy."
L replied, "I don't see any problem. I suppose I can't go on walks like this, but I've rarely been appearing in public these last few months anyway."
Matsuda then turned to Rem and said, "Does that mean, you used to be a human?"
Rem said, "I suppose so, but I don't remember."
Matsuda said, "All this is getting weird. Do you guys want to play video games?"
And then, just like that, L hopped from his chair, followed Matsuda to the video game room, and they played until the early hours of the morning, both men relaxing considerably in the process. L and Matsuda talked quite a bit, and Rem thought she could see the beginnings of a friendship between them. Perhaps, if both survived, L would actually get some friends. It was something that seemed to be good for humans, having friends.
Rem checked on Light every day from then on, trying to convince him that it would be best to take the bribes and refrain from killing. She didn't make any progress. After a time, Rem could tell that pushing Light was futile and probably counter-productive. The more she tried to convince him, the more he seemed determined to make the decision himself, according to his own desires. Rem gave up and simply went back to waiting, but it was tearing her apart inside.
Headquarters was tense and mournful most of the time as everyone waited for Light to make a move, though Matsuda began to really relax and get into the extensive entertainment center L had installed, almost acting like someone who'd forgotten the death threat hanging over them. Several rooms had been rebuilt into one giant room that was probably a video gamer's wet dream, with giant monitors, every imaginable game and game system, along with subscriptions to multiple online game worlds such as World of Warcraft. L had even bought custom-built special controllers that were more suited to large shinigami hands. In addition, there was a vast digital library of movies and television shows, and one entire wall was nothing but refrigerators that were continually stocked with fresh fruit, mostly apples but a few others including exotic selections such as mangoes and passionfruit.
It was just after Christmas when Light made his move. Everyone was gathered into the main investigation room, mostly just drinking coffee and chatting, when suddenly Rem saw L's head snap upward. In the next second, she heard Ryuk's voice saying, "Guess who's here?"
She turned around to see Light and Ryuk. All conversation had halted, and Aizawa's coffee was shaking so badly in his hand that he was spilling it on himself. Nobody except L and herself could see Light, but everyone could see Ryuk and they knew what was happening.
L hopped from his chair and approached Light. Rem felt fear spiking through her. There was nothing she could do. It was impossible for one shinigami to forcibly take a death note from another, and physically attacking Light to prevent him from writing could only be a slight delaying tactic. If Light couldn't be convinced by words, then action was useless.
L said, "Light, my bribes are in the next room. Would you like to see them first?"
Rem said, "Light, my threats still stand."
Light walked the last few steps to L, leaned down, and ripped off L's mask. His eyes were immediately drawn to L's name and lifespan, where two cracks, one large and one small, were now worming their way through letter after letter, then number after number. Rem had managed to put a second crack there about a week previously.
Light took out his death note then and began writing in it. Rem let out a terrible noise that was a sob, a scream and a monstrous roar all combined in one and launched herself at Light. He shot down through the floor as he kept writing. Rem phased after him, but didn't see him in the room below. Where was he? She quickly checked adjacent rooms, finding them empty, then went back to the main investigation room.
There, she saw Light standing directly in front of a wide-eyed, frightened-looking L. Light was holding his death note open in front of L's face and Rem could clearly see the name written there: L Lawliet.
A/N (Author's Note):
I brought Light back in a way that is actually quite common in fan fiction: having death note users become shinigami upon their deaths. I hope it wasn't too cheesy. Anyway, his death did have real consequences for him, because he's obviously not the same Light. Still, Ryuk is doing his best to get rid of Quiv's passivity and make him as much like his former self as possible.
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The Sugar Cube Fort