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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
- 23
- 24
- 25
A/N (Author's Note):
I'm putting a little warning here for those who are sensitive about rape. There is rape in this chapter, of a minor character, of the non-detailed flashback variety. As in, the rape doesn't occur in the actual timeline of this chapter but is acknowledged as happening earlier.
CHAPTER 24: EMERGENCY II
L stared at his name in the death note in front of him for a couple more seconds, then calmed himself and said, "He has written my name. Ryuk and Quiv, Watari will give you all the same bribes as before as long as nobody else here is killed. Limit it now. I was your only enemy."
Light smiled and said, "I know that."
The rest of the investigators looked like they were holding their breaths. It must be hard for them. None of them could see Light, and they had no idea what he'd do next. Rem was glad Soichiro wasn't present to see it. She hoped Light wouldn't go slaughter his human family next.
In a shaky voice, Matsuda suddenly blurted out, "It was an honor to work with you, Ryuzaki."
Aizawa and Mogi agreed, talking about how much they appreciated working with L as the crucial seconds silently ticked by.
Then Light said, "Forty seconds."
L cocked his head to the side, put a finger to his mouth and waited for ten more seconds. Then he said, "I'm not dying. Quiv only wrote my name, not a cause of death, so I should be dead by now."
Aizawa said, "Maybe it was a fake death note to scare you?"
"No," L replied, "he was able to take it through walls. It isn't part of the human world."
Light smiled, a very creepy smile on his skull-like face, and said, "I think it didn't work because the death note only kills humans. Ryuzaki doesn't look human to me."
L made a choked noise, and then said, "Is this a joke?"
Aizawa said, "What's happening?"
L's eyes looked scared and lost. He said, "Light says I'm immune to it. He says I'm not human."
There was an odd silence in the room as everyone stared at L and many emotions flitted through each man's face.
Matsuda broke the silence by saying, "This is great news! Ryuzaki won't die. I wonder what he is? Probably a robot, because he has to have a computer for a brain."
In an annoyed tone, L said, "The technology to build a robot that can pass for human doesn't exist. Besides, I would know it if I were a robot."
Matsuda excitedly continued, "Well, then maybe a cyborg or an android."
Aizawa sighed and said, "Those are all basically the same things."
"No," Matsuda said, "a cyborg has a human brain. But, Ryuzaki, I guess you'd know if you were any of those things. Well, maybe you're a vampire. You're all pale and you almost never go outside and you don't eat normal things. Or, wait, maybe you're a werewolf. You're always crouching on your chair like an animal. Or, with your pale skin and the way you don't wear shoes and have such scary eyes, maybe you're a yuki-onna."
L said, "Don't be silly, Matsuda."
Matsuda said, "But, if you're not human, you have to be something. And, if shinigami and murder notebooks exist, then all kinds of other weird things could exist too."
L replied, "Technically, that's true, but I don't like to believe in things until I see a reason for it, and everything you've mentioned is extremely silly. Believing in all odd things just because you discover one odd thing is true is sort of like believing all statements that sound like lies just because you found one that was true."
Matsuda continued excitedly, "Well then, maybe an alien. Scientists are sure those exist, they just get skeptical about whether any of them have come to earth or not. Or maybe you're a hybrid between a human and something that isn't human. You should ask your parents. Maybe someday you'll sprout antennae or a tail or something."
Aizawa said, "Matsuda, you're not helping."
L turned to Light and said, "Quiv, you're not going to kill anyone else here. Am I right?"
Light said, "Yes. I'll take your bribes. I'm not very interested in what Light wanted. He was just a human. Most of the reason I tried to kill you is because I could see you were different and I wondered what would happen. I certainly don't need the lifespan."
To the rest of the room, L said, "He's not going to kill anyone else as long as I bribe him."
There was a collective sigh from Aizawa, Mogi and Matsuda.
L turned to Light and said, "It is getting a bit tedious to pass messages for you. Why don't you make yourself visible and audible to everyone here?"
Light went around the room tapping people with his death note. Their reactions to becoming able to see him were not as extreme as previously, since he was now the fourth shinigami they'd seen, but they still drew back a bit upon seeing Light's horrific new form with its glowing red eyes.
As soon as Light had finished, L settled himself into a swivel chair, put his hands on top of his knees, and said, "Quiv, why do you say I don't look human? What is it?"
Light said, "It's something only a shinigami can see. I'm not going to tell you. I don't know how the rules apply to you any more, but I'm not going to risk my life just to experiment and find out."
L said, "It has to do with my name and lifespan. Am I correct?"
Ryuk said, "Yeah, that's what makes you look non-human. But I'm not going into any detail."
L replied, "I understand. Just because I do not fit the definition of 'human' in one way, it doesn't follow that I do not fit the definition of 'human' in all ways. It might be that none of the rules about human/shinigami interactions apply to me any more, but it is also possible that some do, or that they apply in unusual ways. The only way to know is by testing."
Ryuk said, "You got it. And none of us here want to use our lives for the test."
L nodded, thinking, his eyes like deep dark pools, and one long, delicate finger resting gently against his lower lip.
L said, "I already deduced it couldn't be an abnormally long or short lifespan."
L sat in silence for a bit longer, then his head snapped up and he looked directly at Rem. "Rem, how long have I not looked human? Was I human when we met?"
Rem said, "You have not looked human since we started our relationship."
L looked stricken. In a panicked whisper, he said, "You said there were no side effects. What did you do to me?"
"I did not know there were side effects until I spoke to Nu later. Nu says the process is irreversible and she doesn't think there are any bad consequences."
In the same whisper, L said, "Am I turning into a shinigami? What is happening to me?"
Rem replied, "Nu didn't remember the details, but I'm sure she would have remembered it if it involved turning into a shinigami."
L relaxed a bit, but he still looked mournful. He said, "I want to be human."
Ryuk said, "Tough luck! Well, where are our bribes?"
With that, L led Ryuk and Light into the special entertainment and eating room he'd constructed for them, and showed them how everything worked. He ended up staying up the entire night playing video games with them to demonstrate everything.
From then on, it was only tying up a few extremely minor loose ends and waiting out the rest of the allotted time, and at last the report to Interpol was sent out and the Kira case officially closed. Aizawa and Mogi treated L differently after learning he was no longer human, and were glad to go once their time was up, but Matsuda was kind to L and L let him continue to stay past the end of the Kira case, helping L as he was taking on other projects by then.
L did not seem to think there was anything odd about occupying a mostly-empty skyscraper, and he conducted the majority of his cases purely through the computer anyway, so he lived in the investigation center most of the time for years afterwards, even though he had various residences around the world and occasionally lived in them for a month or two at a time.
Occasionally, L brought in workers to help with forensics or paperwork, but until six years later when "L" became a detective agency rather than just a detective, the majority of the time it was just himself, Watari, Matsuda and three shinigami. Matsuda continued to live there and help L. At first, Matsuda was little more than a coffee boy, but L gradually came to appreciate his talents and assigned him more varied work.
Matsuda wasn't stupid. He was just immature, impulsive and a bit silly. When he developed some maturity and gave up his stubborn impulse to believe the best of everyone, he actually turned into an excellent detective. He had extremely good perception, he was brave, and his intuition was right surprisingly often. Light's death affected him very deeply, destroying some of his innocence, starting his path to maturity, and making him feel indebted to the Yagami family. He kept doing things for the Yagamis and keeping watch over them. A decade later, he was married to Sayu.
When L was 31 years old, his three successors arrived and began working with him as co-detectives, sharing the "L" label. Now the lie he'd told so many times, that L was a group of people, was finally true. Mello, Matt and Near were all in their late teens, and had already worked extensively with L through the computer as he sent them test cases to train them and to ease his workload.
All of them had accepted his offer to work with him in person, but Mello and Near did not seem thrilled with each other, and there was also some tension between L and Near that finally improved one day when L said, "Near, you're more intelligent than to be a mindless follower. Sit up straight and stop imitating me."
Rem had been surprised, but Near did it, and from then on he seemed to respond best when L insulted him. Near thrived on challenges and was a rather cold person. Matsuda never trusted Near, and Rem eventually discovered that L really didn't either. L secretly kept close tabs on Near to make sure he wasn't doing blatantly illegal things to solve cases. L had no problem with mildly illegal - surveillance without warrants, fake identities, illegal weapons, bribery and blackmail - but he had boundaries. Near did not have such boundaries, and a number of times L rather casually stopped Near from launching some pretty audacious plans. Near always pretended he'd just been testing L and hadn't actually been planning to go through with anything like that, and L pretended to believe him. They both knew the other was lying, but they never spoke of it.
Mello was full of emotional outbursts but got along surprisingly well with L. It seemed that L was the only one who didn't push Mello's buttons. The two of them had a kind of calm, quiet understanding, and they often seemed quite happy just being around each other and not saying anything. Perhaps it helped that L didn't try to limit Mello in any way. L was more lax with Mello than with Near. He occasionally let Mello do illegal things he never would have tolerated in Near, but perhaps that was because Mello didn't try such things very often and seemed to have a sense of boundaries.
Mello was a complete gun nut, and L let Mello take his guns everywhere with no objection whatsoever. The only time L complained was right after Rem became visible to Mello, and then it was because of the damage to the wall.
Rem had made the mistake of saying, "Mello? I thought Mello was a male."
Immediately, Mello had pulled out his gun and shot Rem full of bullets, which simply passed through to damage the wall behind her.
L waited until the hail of bullets stopped, then said, "I'd rather you didn't make so much noise and damage in this room. There's a firing range two floors down."
Matt had been an enigma, a bundle of contradictions. Rem never felt like she understood him. He was easygoing and a bit lazy, brave but with little initiative, and highly intelligent but often didn't really use his intelligence unless L or Mello really pushed him. Matt didn't have any problem being talkative, but he was withdrawing and introspective in his own way, mostly through his obsession with video games.
Matt had been very impressed to meet Ryuk and "Quiv," who by that point had given in and was letting everyone refer to him as "Light" despite the name that floated above his head.
Matt's eyes widened and he said, "Holy shit! You two are legends on World of Warcraft."
Then Matt was doubled over in laughter, not even able to stand straight it was so intense.
Mello said, "What's so funny?"
Matt barely gasped out, "I've had online arguments... with crazy fuckers... about whether Ryuk and Light are even human."
Rem got along with all three successors very well, though she never particularly liked any of them. They were okay. L seemed to have a similar attitude. Rem was never completely sure whether L considered Mello, Matt and Near to be his friends or just co-workers he enjoyed being around. Rem sometimes thought L considered the way the three others looked up to him to be a barrier to true friendship. He was their mentor, not their peer. He rarely did anything truly social with them, but then he rarely did anything truly social with anyone. In that regard, Matsuda was probably more of a friend than any of L's successors.
L's love life was complex during the eight years following Light's death. He kept up his relationship with Rem, but he had sex with three humans during that time: Kristi, an American, Gerard, a Frenchman, and Dolores, a British mathematics professor.
Kristi was a sniper, and an expert on explosives. She worked together with L on a long-running case involving taking down a network of illegal arms dealers. It was one of those rare situations where L felt he needed to interact with some of the suspects personally in an undercover mission, in order to make use of his extraordinary skills in reading people's personalities, motivations and behaviors. It was the kind of work that couldn't be done over a computer, and it involved a lot of danger. Thus, Kristi was on hand, ready to take out his enemies with her sniper rifle the moment L gave the signal.
And, the case dragged on for months because it was ending up to be much more complicated than it seemed at first. During that time, L and Kristi had a lot of interactions, and Rem could tell Kristi was trying to hit on L, and that L was experiencing a tentative attraction in return. Kristi had no idea Rem existed, because L kept that information completely secret. Only a privileged few were allowed to know.
Then, one time, Kristi was following L down a stairwell after the conclusion of a small mission when she suddenly grabbed L and pinned him against the wall. Rem drifted closer, watching curiously. Kristi looked as if she was about to kiss L, and he had an expression of lust on his face.
L looked directly as Rem. He said, "Is this okay? I'll stop if you want me to."
Rem replied, "I told you before, my love for you is not like human love. If this makes you happy, I will be glad to see you do it."
At the same moment, Kristi said, "I don't want to stop," leaned in and kissed him.
After that, L and Kristi frequently found themselves kissing or making out after work. Rem watched the entire process curiously, glad to see the expressions that L got on his face. After a month of the making out sessions, L had a long talk with Rem about Kristi. He explained that he did like Kristi, and he was certain she was trying to seduce him, and he still loved Rem just as much but he was really curious about human sex. After all, despite the heights of sexual bliss he'd reached, he was technically still a virgin at twenty-six years old.
Rem gave her permission, and then L and Kristi started a sexual relationship. L had Rem secretly present at every sexual experience, working him up into a frenzy of pleasure, stimulating him as he drove himself into Kristi. Rem really fell in love with those faces L made during the act, and Kristi wasn't bad either, though Rem wasn't really interested in her.
Then, when the sexual relationship had been going on for two months, Kristi returned to an office unexpectedly and caught L being pleasured by Rem. As far as Kristi could tell, L and a blanket were levitating a couple of feet off the floor, and L had an unmistakable look of sexual ecstasy as he writhed. Kristi was shocked and incredibly scandalized at the same time. It led to a screeching argument about L's "demon lover" and left L a shuddering sobbing mess. Kristi never spoke to him again.
When L recovered, he told Rem, "I will never do that again. If I ever do become involved with another human, I will tell them about you before trying anything sexual. I will never let go of you. Anyone who wants me must accept you as part of the relationship."
A year later, L became sexually involved with a French musician named Gerard. Gerard didn't mind Rem in the slightest. In fact, he gave Rem permission to stimulate him during sex as well as L, and Gerard seemed to quickly become addicted to the pleasure. Gerard also started the process of developing cracks in his name and lifespan shortly after Rem's first experience with him.
Sex between Gerard and L was always incredibly hot and passionate, but their relationship outside of sex was volatile; full of pouting, sulking and frequent arguments. One day, Gerard broke every single dish L owned in a tremendous screaming fit, for no reason that Rem could comprehend, and then left in a huff and never returned. L received a breaking-up email a month later stating Gerard had found another man.
L's relationship with Dolores was different than his first two sexual relationships. He'd hooked up with her as part of his quest to find experts to help with the shinigami realm investigation, especially experts with access to lots of grad students to do the grunt labor and not ask too many questions. Dolores showed no sign that she minded Rem. Rather, she treated Rem like an intellectual puzzle to study. Dolores also allowed Rem to stimulate her during sex with L, and she developed cracks, but she was a reserved, calm woman, and Rem always had the feeling that Dolores was more interested in the idea that creatures like Rem could exist than the many mind-bending orgasms Rem could cause with a touch.
L and Dolores were married for four years, and the marriage always seemed stable to Rem. Thus, she was surprised when it broke up in an extremely bitter divorce, with frenzied screaming and horrible arguments much like the style of those Gerard had always been provoking.
When Dolores had removed the last of her things and was gone for good, Rem approached L and said, "I don't understand why she did that. Was it because of me? If I keep ruining your relationships, I should go."
L pulled Rem to the floor then, climbed into her lap and hugged her.
He said, "Never, ever leave me Rem. Dolores knew about you from the beginning. It wasn't you, it's me. I'm a terrible husband by human standards. I tend to spend weeks at a time sitting in front of a computer for sixteen hours every day, and I'm no good at socializing. Dolores was terribly upset with me because she thought she could change me, make me behave normally at social outings, get me to make friends with her friends. Instead, whenever I let her drag me somewhere, I just spent all my time crouched in a corner by myself eating candy."
"And talking to me."
L wriggled around in Rem's grasp so he could look up at her. He was smiling slightly, his eyes shining with love. He was still fragile and lightly-built, like a teenager, and even though he was 33, he could still pass for 19, just as he could when Rem had first met him. Almost nothing about his appearance had changed in the intervening eight years.
L said, "Perhaps talking to you was one of the social problems. All her friends thought I was completely insane. But, even if I had been heartless enough to ignore you, I'm sure the outcome would have been the same. Human lovers expect more from me than I'm willing to give. I've never been like other people. I can never satisfy them."
Then L was trembling in her arms.
Rem asked, "Are you cold? Should I get a blanket?"
L didn't answer. Instead, he was suddenly crushed up against her very hard, his skinny ribcage pressing into her stomach, and then he climbed up to her mouth and kissed her vigorously, passionately. His tongue came inside her mouth, her dry-as-sand mouth, and licked around, prodding at her tongue, massaging her fangs. L had never kissed her like this before. It had always been innocent little pecks, and those had been rare. Rem stayed still, wondering what she should do.
After a time he drew back, looking into her face from a few inches away, and his eyes were like dark pools of ink. Rem could see the love and intense emotions shining in the depths of those eyes. He was searching her face, looking carefully. There was such want in his eyes.
Rem said, "I love you, but you shouldn't kiss me for so long. You might get frostbite."
L said, "I want to make you feel what I feel..."
And then, he was pushing her to the floor and he was all over her body in a way he never had been before, pushing, prodding, investigating every curve and crevice, jamming his fingers underneath the exoskeleton of bones that covered much of her frame, trying to stimulate, searching everywhere. His movements were sexual, and there was a kind of passionate desperation to his entire demeanor.
Rem let him do as he wished, but she knew he wouldn't find what he was looking for. A couple of times during the process, she reached inside his body and stimulated him to orgasm, making him cry out in pleasure and grind himself into her.
Finally, Rem noticed his fingers taking on a bluish tinge, so she picked him up, took him to bed, and wrapped him firmly in a blanket. She held him that way, the safe way, as he shivered from the cold he'd inflicted on himself, and then she reached inside him, bringing him to a tender, exquisite climax once more before he settled down, panting and exhausted and beginning to warm up from his own body heat now that he had the protection of the blanket.
Rem said, "I don't mind what you did, but nothing you can do to me physically is more pleasurable than a hug. You'll eventually get frostbite if you try something like that very often."
L snuggled closer and said, "Rem, I need you. I love you. You're always there, and you're like me, and you don't expect things I can't provide."
Rem said, "I love you too."
"Rem, I cheated on you. I betrayed you. I'm sorry. It was wrong and I'll never do it again."
Rem held him close and said, "I'm not a human, I'm a shinigami. I was not traumatized by what you did except when you became unhappy from it. I told you it was fine, so you didn't wrong me."
"Then," L said, "if I did not wrong you, I wronged myself. Humans are a species that forms sexual pair bonds. They are supposed to be faithful. When they aren't, it leads to unhappiness. Unfaithfulness provokes more murders than any other cause, which shows how much humans care about it. Enough to kill."
"But, you're not a human either."
L sighed and said, "Other than being immune to death notes, I seem to be human in every way that counts. I haven't been able to discover a single characteristic in myself that differs from other humans. For all practical purposes, I'm a human."
Rem said, "I'm not sure you're aging normally. You look extremely young."
"I've always looked much younger than I am. Unless it becomes quite extreme, I'm not sure we can draw that conclusion."
Rem looked at his lifespan. Just like his name, it was wriggling with cracks, but still perfectly legible. He had about twelve years left. Unless his lifespan was now meaningless, he wouldn't live long enough to be absolutely sure whether he was aging or not.
They were silent for a while, cuddling through the protective barrier formed by the blanket.
Then L said, "Rem, marry me. Please!"
"What?"
L looked up into Rem's face, his dark hair hanging messily into his eyes. He said, "Marry me. There's nobody else. There never will be anybody else. You're everything to me. I love you."
He climbed up her body again, clinging to her with his small frame, letting the blanket fall away, heedless of her freezing cold. He pressed his head into her shoulder and shook.
He said, "You are legally a human. We can have whatever kind of ceremony you want. I know shinigami don't do this sort of thing, but I need you this way. Please say yes."
"Yes."
He let out an incredibly contented sigh and clung even closer to her.
Rem picked him up, saying, "You really will get frostbite. I'm putting you in a hot bath."
In a few minutes, she had stripped him of all clothing and had him in a tub half-full of water as hot as he could stand. Steam was rising everywhere in the bathroom, filming over all the mirrors and hanging in the air. The bluish tinge was leaving L's pale skin. He was looking at her almost constantly, an expression of pure love and adoration. He was contented. It was such a lovely face.
Rem ran even more hot water into the tub, then prepared a sponge with soapsuds and washed him gently, tenderly, everywhere. He looked so happy, and toward the end of his bath, he developed an erection, so Rem pleasured him some more until he came, screaming from the intensity, shaking and looking up at her with the most beautiful face she'd ever seen.
The ceremony was five days later, in a courthouse rather than any religious establishment. It was in a small but stately room all paneled in golden-brown wood, with white flowers, all bought by L, nearly covering the walls. L had dressed in a suit, the first time Rem had ever seen him that way. L had married Dolores in his regular clothing. L let Rem decide whether she would wear anything and she didn't, because she was sure it would look stupid.
There were only a small number of guests. There were few people who had both seen L's face and knew he was L, and nearly every single one was present at the wedding. Still, L was exceptionally paranoid about his real name, and did not marry using it. Technically, Rem was married to Eraldo Coil on paper. She'd gotten something much better than Dolores. Dolores hadn't even been married to one of L's detective aliases, Dolores never found out L was L, and she had been shocked beyond belief when she received half of L's immense fortune as a divorce settlement.
Watari gave Rem away, and then there were very short vows and a kiss. There were no rings because both L and Rem knew they wouldn't wear them. Rem didn't want to compromise her invisibility or ability to move through walls, and L didn't like anything other than his set outfit. He always wore loose items, and knew he'd never be able to put up with having a piece of tight metal clinging to him all the time.
The reception was just as small, with the same group of people, but L had a wedding cake there that couldn't possibly be eaten by them. It was nearly ten feet tall, multicolored, and lavishly decorated with every possible kind of fruit, candy and frosting. Even though it would have been impossible for everyone there to consume the cake no matter how much they ate, L made an impressive attempt to do it himself.
About a year after L and Rem's wedding, Watari died. He was eighty and had been frail for the past three years, so it was no surprise to anyone and L already had largely replaced him with several men who fulfilled the same duties on a rotating basis, including Aiber on rare occasions. All of them were "Watari" as far as law enforcement agencies around the world were concerned, and L even referred to them as such in person. It was a precaution in case any of his enemies ever managed to spy on him. L was an extremely paranoid person, even considering that he had a right to be.
However, the original Watari's death struck L hard. Quillsh Wammy had been part of L's life, off and on, since shortly after his parents had died, and was like a father or grandfather to L. L missed him enormously, and needed a lot of late-night cuddling to help deal with the emotional impact. L simply wasn't the same for several years afterward, but he eventually recovered. Rem found the absence of Watari strange. She'd never liked him much, though he had grown on her over time, and it just felt weird to have various other men performing the same duties while L referred to them with the name "Watari."
The investigation into the shinigami realm took many years. The interviews and physical tests L had performed shortly after Light's death were just the beginning. L managed to consult with quite a number of experts without them realizing exactly what he was consulting with them about, mostly experts in geology, archaeology and paleontology. He had to be very careful with some of the samples he sent out to be analyzed, such as the bones so common in the shinigami realm, most of which came from no earthly creature.
A lot of the scientists L worked with desperately wanted to know where he'd gotten such things and then publish results about it, but L carefully concealed the existence of the shinigami realm. He often put scientists who were working with him under surveillance until they returned the items to him, and sometimes he had to break in and steal back items when scientists got possessive about them.
L was always interested in getting grad students to work at various projects in the shinigami realm. L blindfolded them and knocked them out for the trip there and back. Rem was able to carry one person at a time, so it was a tedious process to get a bunch of unconscious people there for a big project. All of them were told lies about where they actually were, but were cautioned strictly to never remove their masks. Most shinigami ignored them naturally, and the few curious shinigami who might otherwise interfere usually followed L's instructions to leave the humans alone.
Only a handful of the grad students ever saw gods of death, and, of those students, most were told they were hallucinating instead of the truth and they tended to believe that. Only a couple of them were let in on the secret, and these were put to work on various tasks that required interacting with shinigami, though L tended to do most of those jobs himself.
L interviewed every single shinigami except the king extensively over the years, but Nu always gave him the best information. L had found the perfect payment for her, too. The last time Nu had had any contact with the human world, novels basically didn't exist. L was able to bring Nu an endless supply of extremely angsty, regret-laden novels with sad endings, and, in return, she became a fountain of information. In the course of communicating with Nu, L paged backwards in her death note and saw what had been written there about his first crack, so he found out that secret and afterwards Rem could discuss it with him safely.
L spent a lot of time getting, or trying to get, gods of death to take various intelligence and psychological tests, and he attempted to train them, using food as a reward, and to get them involved in various activities. The only real change he produced was that there were fewer shinigami who just sat around doing nothing, and more shinigami who were addicted to various games.
However, L did manage to get Sidoh to take up gardening, though earth plants in the shinigami realm required a lot of care to keep alive, until the point where most of them died and the rest began gradually transitioning into shinigami-realm plants. Still, Sidoh discovered he could usually get a crop of normal tomatoes out of any particular tomato garden before the point when that happened. Finally, 13 years after Light's death, L came to Rem and told her he thought he had the answer to what was wrong with the shinigami realm.
L scrunched himself into an armchair and said, "I do not think you will like it, Rem. It isn't good news."
Then, L explained the conclusions he'd come to. The shinigami realm had once had ecosystems of some kind, and a larger variety of creatures, not just plants and shinigami, but those ecosystems had fallen apart ages ago, perhaps when the original inhabitants of the shinigami realm discovered immortality. L wasn't allowed to even receive a description of what the shinigami king looked like, but he had pieced together bits and pieces of conversation to conclude, correctly, that the king looked exactly like a living version of various extremely ancient skeletons that were prevalent in the shinigami realm, skeletons that looked a bit like giant ticks with two human-like monstrous skulls in place of a head, one big, one little, the big one inside the little one.
L explained, "I believe the king isn't a shinigami at all. That's why he has extra powers and operates according to different rules and is far older than anyone else. I think the king is the last original inhabitant. There were once cities full of creatures like him, and their skeletons litter the landscape. He is the only one left. I am not sure if human techniques for dating materials work in the shinigami realm, but if he was born around the time the last of the others died, I think he is perhaps just under a million years old."
"But," Rem said, "what is wrong with my world?"
L said, "I think that your world can't sustain itself, it doesn't work. It has been a parasite on the human world, and perhaps on other worlds previous to that, but even that process is deeply flawed. From what I've been able to gather, the number of shinigami has always been in decline, and shinigami have continually become more passive and uncaring through time. Nu has been alive for thirty thousand years and, even though her memory isn't that good about some things, in the days when she was young, the oldest gods of death alive at that time told her about the same problems, they just weren't as bad then. And, back then, there were shinigami who cared about these issues and spent a lot of time trying to correct them, with no success."
Rem said, "So, you can't figure out how to stop the decay?"
L said, "An unsustainable system drives itself towards collapse, unless it can be replaced with a sustainable system. But, I do not think this can be done for your world. Are you familiar with the concept of thresholds?"
Rem said, "I do read some, and I've heard you discussing it on the phone a bit. It is the point when a system starts reacting differently, often a point where things can no longer be reversed or can't be reversed in the same way. Like when water starts boiling. Before that, you could cool down the pan and get exactly the water you started with, but when some of the water boils away, cooling the pan won't put the evaporated water back in."
L said, "Once a system crosses a threshold, it can become impossible to fix it. I believe the shinigami king spent thousands of years trying to fix it, but he knows his world is dying and is no longer trying to do anything to stop it. That is why he is so stingy about letting shinigami have extra notebooks. He is purposely letting gods of death go extinct."
Rem was immensely sad. She was a refugee from a dying world, one that couldn't ever be fixed. But, the inhabitants being affected by the process of decay were far fewer in number than the total population of even a tiny village of humans. In terms of the number of individuals affected, the tragedy wasn't that bad. If there was no point to being a shinigami, if there was no fun in life for them, then maybe it was best for them to quietly die out. Rem realized that she no longer completely thought of herself as a shinigami. She had allied herself with the humans.
But, at that point, Misa was dead, L only had seven years left in his lifespan, and Rem hadn't formed any significant attachments to other humans, nothing that would really make life seem worth living after L died. Rem resolved to treasure the time she had left with L, and she did. Every year was immensely precious.
Then, L's day of death arrived. He was 45 years old, and he'd aged just slightly. He looked like maybe he could be 25. It was in the middle of a case involving the mafia, always the most dangerous people to mess with. As L's time was in the range of minutes, he was walking down a street just after dark. It wasn't a bad neighborhood, it was nice, but there was nobody around. It was empty and even his worn-out sneakers made a slight hollow echo in the stillness. Rem kept flying ahead and looking into nearby buildings, trying to see if it would be an attacker. L seemed too healthy to die any other way. She found nobody.
Rem thought fiercely as L's minutes ran out. She'd already decided to sacrifice her life if necessary, but she wasn't sure it would work that way. Light's use of the death note proved that L wasn't exactly human any more. His lifespan might be meaningless, and even if it did mean he was scheduled to die in a few minutes, Rem might be able to save him without dying. The rule might not apply in the same way, or at all.
Then, garbage cans on either side of the street suddenly opened up and spilled two masked gunmen onto the street. L dived behind a car for cover and Rem flew forward, pulling off both masks and seeing the names. She flew back to L and took one last loving look at him and his almost-gone lifespan as she started writing in her death note. L looked up at her with a stricken face, his eyes so wide and black, like deep pools she could fall into. Rem didn't even glance at the gunmen as she heard the sounds of them having heart attacks. Her gaze was on L's lifespan as it increased and increased, stopping finally at 185 years. Would he truly live that long?
But then, Rem could feel herself beginning to crumble, and it was incredibly painful. L started forward, but Rem said, "There might be other attackers, also don't accidentally touch my death note, or you'll have to choose between killing at least one person and losing all memory of me."
In a choked voice, L said, "Rem!"
Rem's awareness was fading, but she heard herself say, "I love you."
There was an incredibly weird twisting, wrenching sensation, all dizziness and disorientation. In the next moment, Rem heard bells. Musical little chimes, soft and far-away sounding, ringing out various complex patterns, never stopping. Then Rem became aware that she was seeing the same scene she'd been in before her death, but from a different height than usual, a lower height. She was looking down at her own pile of sand, with her death note sticking up out of it. Was she some kind of ghost? Rem was briefly amused at the thought of a shinigami ghost, but mostly she felt overwhelming sadness. It felt like more than her own emotion, though, as if someone else's sadness existed in her chest alongside her own.
Then, she felt her hand reaching outward, and tried to pull it back. She had no control over her movements! She couldn't turn her head, or talk, and her entire body felt funny, very different. When the hand came into view, she wanted to gasp, but couldn't, as she recognized it. It was his hand! L's hand!
L's hand hesitated before reaching Rem's death note and drew back. Rem felt and heard her lips, L's lips, mutter, "I don't want to forget."
Then she felt her body, L's body, withdraw a cellphone from a pocket and call Watari, explaining the situation, that there could still be attackers around and that a death note was just sitting on the sidewalk and needed to be destroyed without anyone touching it.
Rem was excited, and scared, and immensely happy all at the same time. She wasn't dead; she was in L! She was in his body! She wasn't dead, and she'd be together with him until he died. Rem tried fiercely to create some movement, anywhere in his body, but nothing worked. L's body only moved according to his will. And along with feeling his body, she was certain she could feel his emotions as well. There were feelings Rem was experiencing that seemed to belong to L, not her.
Rem helplessly observed, while the newest Watari came, the death note was burned without anyone touching it, and L was whisked away to an airport so he could leave the entire area and re-evaluate the situation from a distance. Assassins could still be after him. The entire time, Rem tried to find some way to signal L about where she was, but nothing worked.
Rem thought madly. This must have happened with Jealous and Misa as well. And, though Jealous hadn't managed to communicate with Misa or Rem, Rem had sensed him in there even though she hadn't interpreted her sense correctly at the time. When Rem interacted with Misa, she'd always felt as if she were dealing with a good friend she'd had for 80 years, like Jealous. Nothing in Misa's attitude or behavior had been capable of provoking the fierce, illogical love Rem had for Misa.
Rem became a bit more optimistic. If she'd come that close to realizing Jealous was inside Misa, then there was certainly a good chance that L, the greatest detective in the world, might realize Rem was inside his body. L was considerably smarter than Misa, and Rem had more time in which to try to communicate with L.
But then Rem was suddenly struck by horror. Poor Jealous! If he had to endure Misa's body and emotions, he must have been terribly unhappy most of the time. No wonder Rem had tried so desperately to secure Misa's happiness. But it hadn't worked, except that maybe, in Misa's last years in the insane asylum, Jealous had finally had some true rest and happiness.
Though, since Jealous had been forced to endure whatever Misa's body had been put through, he had almost certainly been raped by Light. Rem couldn't imagine that Jealous had actually wanted the first sexual encounter that Misa and Light had experienced.
The second one was much nicer, so maybe he did want that one, but on the other hand he'd already been raped by Light once at that point so he probably didn't want any more of Light. Rem felt a horrible despair. She'd tried so hard to help her friend, and had only helped a little bit. She had watched, and done nothing, while he was raped! Rem hadn't known what was happening, but she felt guilty all the same. She should have grabbed Light and pulled him off of Misa that first time, no matter how much Misa objected.
Then, Rem was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts by noticing a man walking past L in the airport L was now in. The man looked very similar to Rem's father.
Wait! My father? I remember, I remember being human!
Rem had been so occupied with the present moment that she hadn't realized it, but her memories now stretched back to before she'd become a shinigami, to her life as a human. Before she was Rem. No, her name wasn't "Rem" then. It was something entirely different.
A/N (Author's Note):
A yuki-onna or "snow woman" is a creature from Japanese mythology. I thought it would be funny for Matsuda to accuse L of being a female non-human. Yes, I'm sure L picked up on it, he just doesn't care.
Ha! A few readers noticed Light's new name is actually kind of dirty (just google it and you'll find out). I guess it's my way of saying Light's the uke!
Yes, I finally got to the time skip that I've been talking about for a while. It took longer to get to this point than I thought it would! But, in just this chapter, we've covered about twenty years.
Yes, L did cheat on Rem, but I think it's in character for a few reasons. One, I believe L is slightly evil, like the canon manga writer says. Two, L doesn't understand how to conduct himself in relationships. Three, Rem told him it was okay. Put all those together, and you've got a cheating L. Though, he did realize his mistake and married her. Because he's mostly good.
The canon minor character who had been following much of what was happening was Jealous, and it was because he was trapped inside Misa's body from the time he saved her until her death. Nobody guessed it in reviews, but I didn't expect anyone to. I hope that was an unexpected plot twist!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure this fic has the only LightxJealous rape in the history of Death Note fanfiction. Or, depending on how you view it, perhaps Light and Misa both raped Jealous.
Well, I've been doing the death-related cliffhangers for three chapters in a row now, first Light, then L, and now Rem. I hope I didn't wear out my readers too much. Will Rem be able to signal L she's inside his body? Or will he think she's totally gone? One way or another, though, it looks like Rem is finally going to experience orgasms. L is going to jerk off sooner or later.
I characterized Near and Mello in a non-standard way, making Mello more law-abiding than Near, and Near creepier than he usually is in fan fiction, and making them willing to work together. I think both idolize L so much that they'd put up with each other for the sake of working with L, plus I think if L hadn't died, Mello wouldn't have gone quite so ballistic and he also wouldn't have spent some formative years clawing up the ladder in the mafia. Also, I believe that, deep down, Near is less law-abiding than L, more willing to cheat than L is. L is a minor cheater, but Near is a big cheater.
The next chapter is a flashback chapter of Rem's life as a human circa 300 B.C. on the border of Central Asia and the Middle East. And, it's already basically finished, I just have to do another editing sweep, so you should see it very soon. However, since it's a flashback chapter, it doesn't resolve the cliffhanger at the end of this chapter. You'll have to wait for that! Sorry!
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