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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
- 3
- 4
- 5
CHAPTER 4: CARD GAMES
The next morning, L had descended to the main room of the task force headquarters before anyone else. He had spent the entire night crouched on his bed in front of his laptop, though his motions had become considerably slower around 3AM, and by 4AM he had fallen asleep in the exact same position, staying that way for a couple of hours. When he woke up, he had immediately gone downstairs to the main room where everyone seemed to do most of their work, the one with so many monitors for surveillance video, those monitors now empty of Misa.
Rem stared longingly at the screens as L adjusted them, at last settling on an arrangement that showed three different angles of Light sleeping in his bed and with the rest of the video feeds coming from the cameras stationed around the two entrances. In other words, L had prioritized the biggest threats. It was obvious he still suspected Light and Misa. But, he couldn't do anything, could he? Not with so many others against him. Would his suspicions decrease over time until the whole thing blew over? If there was never any additional evidence beyond the circumstantial evidence that had already accumulated, plus no confessions and no more murders, then L's suspicions could never be enough, could they? Was that the plan? Ignore the problem and it would eventually go away?
Rem turned her attention to L. He watched the monitors intently, eating bites of cheesecake between selecting various items from a tray of assorted pastries, most of them glazed, some with sprinkles. He squeezed each pastry he considered, as if evaluating its tenderness or texture, looking greedy, licking his lips, his eyes big and fascinated. L absently picked off some of the sprinkles and dropped them in his tea, stirring and stirring, watching them swirl around. He looked happy, child-like and very vulnerable. Once again, Rem was reminded of Misa. They both seemed like such kids. The difference was that Misa was almost never happy. Misa couldn't properly relax. She always thought things would get better someday rather than now, she saw happiness only in her future. The present moment never seemed to be adequate. L obviously had no problem with the present moment, even though, if he truly thought that the original two Kiras were getting away, he should be terrified of dying soon.
Light came downstairs at exactly 8AM, dressed immaculately and without a single hair out of place, at precisely the same moment everyone else except Matsuda arrived. Light and L immediately got into a detailed discussion about the merits and problems of various databases that catalogued deaths, and how to integrate them into one big database for the investigation headquarters. Matsuda arrived toward the end of the discussion, looking embarrassed, probably about oversleeping.
Light turned to face the group and said, "Since we now know Kira can kill with any method, not just heart attacks, our current database of criminal heart attacks is not enough. We will need to develop a database with extensive information on deaths by accident and illness ever since Kira began operating, especially in the Kanto region. It is particularly important to include people other than criminals, because that is what led us to Higuchi."
Matsuda said, "Oh man! That's going to be so much work."
Aizawa said, "Be quiet, Matsuda. That's the only thing we can do to try to find the other notebook."
"Matsuda," L said, "I have another task for you. A package has arrived. Take it through the security checkpoints and open it. It is full of cards, board games and various other types of entertainment. See if the shinigami would like to play with you. I suspect Rem might be bored and lonely."
Matsuda giggled nervously and went to the elevator. Everyone else looked either shocked or puzzled. Rem looked to L, but his expression was unreadable. Was this L's way of saying he didn't ever want a repeat of last night's activity?
Soichiro asked, "Why would you think that, Ryuzaki?"
L took another bite of cheesecake and said, "Rem is a creature that exists in order to kill humans. Of course we should think about her needs and well-being. It only makes sense that we should not give her any reason to hate us."
Aizawa looked at Rem nervously and then back at L. He said, "Of course, of course. And, Matsuda wouldn't be good at helping us build that database anyway. He's not skilled with computers."
"Indeed," L replied, and went back to stuffing his face with sweets while discussing more details of the database with Light.
Rem watched Light and L carefully. As they talked, their gestures, the facial expressions that went back and forth and the way they casually invaded each other's personal space without thinking or reacting, these were all characteristics that made them look like two close friends. But, at the same time, there were problems. A kind of tension ran below the surface. At times, L's normally unreadable expression faltered and showed a kind of grim fear or despair for just a moment. Light's face wasn't right either. When L wasn't looking directly at Light, sometimes an evil little smile flickered across Light's lips, or the eyes became narrowed, glittering with a fevered, insane look. Had the two really been friends at University? How long had that gone on? Their interaction seemed poisonous, wrong, danger lurking just beneath the surface. It rather reminded Rem of Light's interactions with Misa, except that Misa would have spent the entire time clinging to Light's arm, bouncing on her toes, and saying completely inane things. At least L seemed to have an awareness that he might be in trouble.
Matsuda soon arrived pushing a wheeled cart with a huge cardboard box on it. He set up a table for the two of them out of the way of the other investigators, under the stairs. It really was quite a huge room for the few workers who occupied it. Rem allowed herself to relax and focus on what Matsuda was doing. There wasn't any chance of L writing in the death note with all the task force members around him and Light himself on guard. Rem would only need to shadow L in the evenings. Matsuda seemed nervous and hyper. As he unpacked the box and began to sort through the contents, he shuffled around quite a bit, often had little laughs, and couldn't seem to decide whether to look at Rem or not.
He showed the various items to Rem one at a time and asked if she recognized anything or had a preference. Rem kept passing on everything. She had seen humans playing games before, but had not paid enough attention to learn the rules or even recognize most of the games. Then, when Matsuda picked up a pack of cards, Rem's eyes widened. She said, "Gods of death play many card games in the shinigami realm."
"Then," Matsuda said, "do you want to play something?"
Rem took the pack and emptied the cards into her hand. Suddenly, she thought of Jealous, and of other shinigami she had known. In particular, there had been one, about a thousand years before Rem had started spending so much of her time with Jealous. His name was Bribank. He was the first shinigami Rem had ever seen die of laziness. He rarely wrote names into his death note, and was obsessed with playing card games. One time, he hadn't stopped playing for eighty years straight, and crumbled to bits as Rem was walking by. His companions in the game merely grunted in irritation, then asked Rem if she wanted to pick up Bribank's cards and start playing in his place. Rem had felt a profound chill at the sheer indifference of it all.
Rem shook free of her thoughts and put the cards back in their package. "No," she said, "I've had far too much experience in these games. Show me something new, show me how to play something I've never played before."
Soon, Matsuda had drawn Rem into playing Go. It looked simple, but was deceptively complex. Every time she thought she was going to win, or Matsuda was, the game suddenly shifted in the other direction. Matsuda gradually lost his nervousness, starting to treat Rem like an actual person. He even got up after he'd won a particularly difficult game and did a little victory dance. Rem almost smiled at him. This guy was obviously stupid, and from what he said he was a mild Kira supporter. Perhaps, just perhaps, if Light's plan were to slaughter the investigation team, this one would live because of not being a real threat and being a possible ally.
As Rem began to appreciate the subtle complexities of Go, she became excited. A fantasy popped into her mind of bringing this game and other new games into the shinigami realm and revitalizing it, making gods of death care about something, anything. But, no, perhaps it would just give them a deeper addiction. Then more would die from laziness. The fault, whatever it was, resided within shinigami themselves, perhaps in their minds. Ryuk was one of the most active and interested shinigami Rem had ever known, yet he was passive and uncaring by human standards, and his fellow gods of death endlessly made fun of him for caring the little that he did. Ryuk himself had, in turn, mercilessly made fun of Rem for caring whether Misa lived or died. He'd cackled in disbelief and said, "You have feelings? But you're a shinigami!"
As Rem played, she made sure to pay attention to Light every so often. There was still a plan, and Light could be trying to drop clues, reliant on Rem to figure it out. Light didn't seem as if he was trying to send any message. He rarely even looked in Rem's direction, and all his actions and words were neutral, controlled, unsuspicious. Although, the world's top detective was right in the same room, so perhaps Light couldn't do much to drop any hints. Still, Light had managed to keep killing with the death note even when under heavy surveillance in his home. Surely, he would be able to figure out something to let Rem know what to do if the need arose.
L was also fairly neutral himself. He looked thoughtful, but said very little except matter-of-fact statements relating to the new database. As the morning turned gradually to afternoon and Matsuda introduced Rem to checkers, L focused on almost nothing except brief, businesslike conversations, the computer screen in front of him, and the endless cups of coffee and assortments of sweets that were delivered by Watari. Sometimes he looked happy, but mostly he looked unreadable, his dark eyes intense with inscrutable thoughts and plans. There were times, however, when Rem saw L staring at Light when Light's back was turned, staring with a very curious expression, not with suspicion, as if he was thinking of Light being Kira, but with a kind of sick, fascinated shock. At those times, Rem could almost feel L imagining Light receiving sexual pleasure from a shinigami. Perhaps L now thought it was usual for a shinigami to seduce humans, and since he suspected Light of being Kira, he thought Light must have had the same kind of experience.
Just as Matsuda was trying to explain the rules of a third new game to Rem, L walked over, delicately holding an ice cream cone in two fingers, and sat down next to Matsuda, facing Rem across the table.
"How are you doing, Rem?" he said.
Rem pulled herself out of her attempt to memorize the rules. For a moment she was glad to see L. Matsuda was fun, and the games were fun, but she'd felt kind of like she'd been pushed off to the side by everyone in the investigation, pushed out of the way and ignored. A burden. Then Rem remembered, this man was the enemy. L posed a threat to Misa's life, and though it looked like Misa was free and clear, it wasn't quite over yet. Even right now, L might be planning to kill her darling.
"Your games have been adequate," Rem said.
"Ryuzaki," Matsuda said, "Rem is very good. Even though we've only played games she learned today, she beat me almost every time, and I wasn't trying to lose either."
"Well, Rem," L said, "I have video games set up in a nearby room, I think you might enjoy those too. I didn't put them here because I think they'd be too distracting for the investigation. For now, I'd like to question you for a little while. If there's anything else you might want, be sure to tell me."
Then L popped the tip of the ice cream cone in his mouth, using a quick swirling motion of his tongue to pluck it off and suck it in. It looked so much like what he'd been doing to his penis that time. Was he trying to hint he wanted another encounter? If so, he didn't drop any more hints. Instead, he wanted all sorts of details about Higuchi. At the very beginning of the session, Rem gave a quick glance to Light, but he didn't even turn toward the conversation, so that meant she was completely on her own. Probably Higuchi was a pretty safe subject. Light himself had already stated that Higuchi's killings showed a distinct pattern different from the Kira before Light had been imprisoned. With that much known and obvious, Higuchi wasn't going to take the blame for Light or Misa. He was simply irrelevant. His only purpose was to get the death note and its fake rules to the investigation team via a route that seemed to be entirely unconnected to Light or Misa.
Rem answered all of L's questions in as much detail as she thought prudent, careful to claim that Higuchi had picked up her death note by accident and that she hadn't been with any Kira before Higuchi. No matter how much L found out about Higuchi's doings, nothing else would really matter. Watari arrived several times to clear away empty dishes and food wrappers while delivering more sweets and, oddly enough, a bowl of soup. L simply dropped a couple handfuls of sugar cubes into the soup, added some tea to it, and slurped it up between popping various sweets into his mouth.
Suddenly there was a harsh beeping from behind Rem. Mogi said, "Oh look, there's Misa at the first floor entrance."
Rem whipped her head around and saw an image of Misa on the monitor. She looked patient and anxious at the same time. Waiting for her Light, the only reason she had for living. Rem's eyes flickered to Misa's lifespan. A wave of horror and worry washed over her. Misa now had only seven years to live, but before it had been fourteen. Ryuk shuffled into view and Rem knew for sure then. Misa had dug up the hidden death note, and did the eye trade with Ryuk.
Since the scrap Rem had touched Misa with in the Yotsuba headquarters didn't restore Misa's memory, and in any case Light was the one who knew where the other death note had been buried, Light must have somehow gotten a message to Misa. Why messages to Misa but none to Rem? Light was making this so hard, the bastard, and Rem was sure he'd manipulated Misa into trading away half her lifespan. Perhaps Rem should have killed Light at the very beginning. All his plans did was bring more misfortune to Misa. This, this must have been why Light had made sure Ryuk became attached to Misa's death note instead of Rem. Rem would have never done the trade with Misa a second time. It was Light's plan from the beginning.
Please, don't hurt Misa. Please don't hurt her any more. I'll kill you, Light. I'll make you suffer as soon as Misa is gone. I'll give you a painful, humiliating death.
Then Rem happened to catch's L's facial expression in her peripheral vision. He had certainly taken note of her strong reaction to Misa. How much had he seen? Rem's face had been turned mostly away from him, but he'd be able to check the room's footage later for a better view of her expression. Should she turn back and resume the interrogation session? No, turning back now would seem like she was hiding something. Since Misa had obviously caught her interest, Rem should just keep watching and settle down, then turn back to face L in due time. Misa perked up on the video monitor as Light entered into view.
Matsuda said, "Poor Misa! Waiting out there is the only way she can contact Light, since we aren't allowed to have our cellphones in here."
Light and Misa hugged, then Light's mouth once again turned away from the camera and situated itself in Misa's ear. He was certainly telling her something, in a way that couldn't be caught by any microphone unless L had bugged their very clothing. Light stayed there for quite a while, adjusting his hug a few times so that Misa could periodically put her mouth next to his ear as well.
Aizawa said, "I know Light is busy with the investigation, but those two should go out instead of just standing there talking."
Rem saw a tear run down Misa's face, and she looked ashamed. What had Light told her to make her so upset? Was he telling her that all her sacrifices weren't good enough? Would Misa ever satisfy him, even when she offered her life and safety for his convenience? Perhaps Light planned to keep her unhappy and off-balance forever, eternally convinced that if she just did one more thing for him, he'd finally be satisfied. What a perfectly ugly way to maintain control. Humans were so disgusting. Sometimes the indifference of shinigami seemed clean and pure. If you didn't want anything, you'd never hurt others to get what you wanted. Rem's hand itched to write down Light Yagami's name in her death note. If only she didn't need him to complete his plan... if only she didn't fear that Misa would become more suicidal than ever before if Light died.
Then Misa drew back from Light, tears running down her face, and shouted, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I forgot."
Light quickly grabbed her in a close hug, cutting off her words.
Misa forgot what? Not her death note memories, Ryuk's presence was proof enough of that. What could be so important? It must be L's real name. Misa had seen him just once while her power was active. Curse that Yagami boy! He always explained so little. If he'd just given Misa a physical description of L in the beginning, or any hint that it might be possible to encounter L at the campus, Misa would have noted the name carefully, filing it away so that there would be a much greater chance of remembering it later. That must be why Misa had made the deal again. To see L's real name. And, she was so close. There were only a few walls and security checkpoints between Misa and L. Close, but unbreachable for the moment.
Well, that must be the plan. As much as it hurt, it was already done. Misa couldn't give her shinigami eyes back to Ryuk and get those lost years back. But now, the problem of getting L's real name to someone with access to a death note was practically solved. Just one breach in security, one smuggled camera, and it need not be Light or Misa who did it; it could be a controlled victim. Once Misa had the eyes, there were so many ways to kill L. And, the death note was surely well hidden, with Misa instructed not to approach its hiding place unless Ryuk had checked thoroughly for surveillance and followers. Even if L had Misa searched, he wouldn't find anything, and the rest of the investigation team would turn against him even more. Every move Light made further isolated and discredited L. That sick bastard was a genius.
Just then, Watari arrived, pushing a cart laden with more food. This time, it was mostly fruit. L plucked an apple and said, "Rem, do shinigami love to eat apples?"
Rem was stunned. It sounded like L was talking about Ryuk. How could he have such intimate knowledge of the situation and yet Light wasn't arrested as Kira? No, no, it was best to play dumb.
Rem said, "Ryuzaki, I have heard that some shinigami eat, but I've never done so myself. Our internal organs are advanced, highly evolved, and do not require food. I do not know anything about apples in particular."
L held out the apple. "Would you like to try? I think it would be an interesting experiment."
Rem shivered in revulsion at the thought of becoming apple-addicted like Ryuk. There was no way she'd give Light, and possibly others, yet another way to manipulate her. The right thing to do was to never have the first apple. That avoided the whole problem.
"Eating looks like a disgusting habit. I won't do it."
L sighed. "Well, that theory must go then. It probably was just a bit of nonsense."
Rem blinked, but said nothing. It was best not to ask, not to appear to be interested. However he got it, L had received a real clue and he must not be allowed to deduce anything about it. Next, L picked up the death note and showed Rem the place where she had torn off a piece in order to touch Misa in the Yotsuba headquarters.
He said, "In this murderer's notebook, there is a missing piece. Would a person die if you were to write a name on that little piece?"
This was getting too close! Light had used scraps of the death note for many of his tricks. L was too smart, zeroing in... No, just keep playing dumb. The investigators had already agreed that it would be completely unethical to try out the death note, and Rem would be watching so L didn't try it secretly. Besides, they'd all be dead soon.
Rem replied, "I wonder? I've never tried to use it like that, so I don't know."
Just then, Light entered the room.
L looked over his shoulder and said, "You're back soon, I thought you were going to go on a date. You do know you're free to leave here and have a relationship?"
Light replied, "Ryuzaki, I feel like I can't rest or waste any time with the Kira incident being like this. Even though criminals aren't dying at this moment, it seems certain that another death note is out there. Are you saying it's a problem if I'm always here?"
"No, not at all," L said, "you can go wherever you want."
Light moved on, but L stayed, fiddling with his food instead of eating it, staring into space for the longest time, a sharp look in his dark eyes. Once again, Rem could almost see the wheels in his brain turning. L knew something was wrong. How long could this deception last? The longer that Light never left the building, the more obvious it would be that there was something to be discovered. And, Rem had no doubt that L would try to discover it. He would test it, and if he lived long enough, he would find out Rem was linked to Light, and begin to wonder why. It wouldn't prove anything, but it would be suspicious to anyone, not just to L. It would be especially suspicious since it would be obvious that Light knew of the connection and had tried to hide it. Was Light really so sure that he could win quickly, before the question of why he didn't leave the building began weighing heavily on everyone's minds?
Rem wanted to hiss in frustration, but L was right there. He looked ready to start questioning her again at any moment. She spread out her wings and flew straight up, through floor after floor, finally coming out on the roof. She found the tallest thing on the roof - a kind of long, skinny metal framework, maybe an antenna of some kind - and weightlessly settled on the top. Rem had never before wished that she could really tear out her hair, or slam her fist into a wall and have it bleed, but that's what she wanted now. She wanted to harm herself in some way, punish herself for never being able to actually help Misa or protect her at all. This isn't how she'd imagined it when she first approached Misa with Jealous's death note.
No, she was going to make Misa so powerful that nobody would ever be able to harm her again. With Rem by her side and the power to kill any obstacle, Misa was going to regain her confidence, start thinking for herself again, and start taking what she wanted instead of begging others to use her. That's why Rem had even agreed to the shinigami eyes deal. After all, the death note wasn't that powerful if you didn't know a name, and as a hot, young female celebrity who would surely only become more famous, Misa could have an unknown stalker or rapist attack her again at any moment. Misa had cried and begged Rem, "Please, don't let me think I'll ever have to face that sort of thing again. Even with all this power, if I can't stop that, it isn't worth it. I'll be afraid everywhere I go."
Of course Rem had given in. Half of Misa's lifespan was a small price to pay for a guarantee of safety and secure confidence. Rem was sure she'd at last get a happy Misa, but it hadn't happened that way. Misa - practically a goddess of death in human form at that point - was still afraid, and she still bowed and scraped in front of others. Even when Misa found out her sleazy manager was taking too large a portion of her modeling paychecks, essentially embezzling funds, Misa never killed the woman, nor did she use the death note to set up others to humiliate the manager. No, Misa continued to let the thievery happen for months, and then at last let the woman go with a heartfelt goodbye and an enormous severance package.
Rem looked out at the cityscape spread below her, going on and on to the horizon. This time, it didn't seem so much like a symbol of hope, activity and expansiveness. There were just too many people. They created all these structures and routines shinigami didn't have or care about, when to get up or go to sleep, the little back-and-forth movements between work and home, the buildings they used to keep some out and others in, and they were always meddling in each others' lives, trying to control, trying to push, seeking goals and victories, making plans to trap each other. Too many of them wanted to hurt. Perhaps Kira should strike fear into them, break up their routines, make them think hard before they did anything, make them frightened to act, make them passive, less caring, more withdrawn into their own activities, like shinigami would be. Goddamn humans! Why was it so hard to make Misa happy and keep her free of the legal system?
As Rem stayed there and the hours flew by, she knew the task force members would be leaving soon, or perhaps had already left. L would surely be with the death note all night, as he never seemed to let it out of his sight. Rem knew she should go there and watch L, just in case he might want to write down the names of his Kira suspects, no matter how small the chance might be. But she just couldn't. She didn't want to look at a human, any human. So she stayed there all night, looking at the city and the sky, thinking up a few choice fantasies of killing both L and Light, somehow Misa and Rem triumphant, both alive and well. At the dawn, with the brightening streaks across the sky turning from pink to golden, Rem at last felt her anger leaving her. She was tired now, but tired with a job to do. There was some sort of plan, and Rem needed to figure out the best way to be of use in that plan. She plunged down through the floors, seeking that large room where the investigators did nearly all of their work. Surely they would be there now.
A/N (Author's Note):
I have often wondered why Rem didn't kill Light along with L. Light was obviously willing to put Misa in danger and had no love for her. Once Rem was gone, Misa would have no protection at all from Light. It doesn't make sense for a shinigami who loves Misa to leave Misa's future in the hands of Light.
Of course, the main reason Rem didn't do it was because in Death Note, all things get sacrificed for the sake of the plot and Rem killing both of them would have been a very anti-climatic ending. But it still would have been cool if, after Light found Rem's death note, he'd found half of his own name written in it. A plot twist like that would have made up for some of the suckiness.
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The Sugar Cube Fort