Choices

Choices: A Death Note Fan fiction
By Aurora Moon

I only have my spell check and my Grammar check to depend on in terms of looking for errors, but even then that's not perfect at all... so if you see some weird stuff, then sorry!

Reviewer Response time!
~SakuraCo:
I'm glad you liked the original Shinigami character! I felt that I was taking a big risk in making an OC like that, because usually they don't go over well with various types of fans. However I feel that it paid off. :)

~mayablackwolf: Yeah, I figured that Mikami wouldn’t learn at all, considering his background… this is an dude who’s actually believed that he was responsible for certain deaths long before he even owned an death note, when you look at his bio. So yeah, he’s been always just a little bit crazy in the head, if not a lot.

Anyway, on with the story! I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!
================================

--A few days later--
It was a pretty typical therapist's office, now that Misa looked at it. But the office was just SO typical, that it was boring.

She had spent almost 30 minutes in the office and already she felt like she was to die from boredom. The monotone voice of her new shrink wasn't helping much nether.

He was an lanky-looking man who was just starting to bald a little bit, with a tweed sweater vest over his white shirt. his gray pants did nothing but make his legs seem even more skinner.

"So, we've basically covered everything about you and your life..." He still spoke in that same monotone voice. "Now I think it's time we got right to the point of your visit... the break-in that occurred at your house. So, would you like to describe to me how you felt at the time?"

Misa just sighed heavily. "Well... I don't know how I felt at that time to be quite honest. You know about my nightmares, right? I think I told you all about that like five minutes ago. Anyway... the nightmare kept on occurring in this same way. And then there was the fact that the criminal looked just exactly like the murderer in my dreams. Well, that just made everything seem unreal. You know what I mean?"

The man peered at Misa over his glasses. "So you're basically saying the whole thing felt like it was just one of those bad dreams of yours?"

Misa nodded. "yup! I guess you could say there was like this part of me that couldn't accept that it was really happening for real. And I was so sick and tired of those nightmares, that I wanted to do something about it. you know, I heard that if you confront whatever's making you feel scared or whatever in your dreams, that it'll end the nightmares for good. So in a way I guess I felt that if I stood up to that criminal, everything would go back to normal. If that even makes sense. The nightmares DID end when I confronted that guy, though… so I guess that was true."

"I see. very interesting..." The therapist nodded, writing something in his gray notepad.

Misa then giggled, pretending to be nervous as she said the last part: "of course that part of myself that felt that it wasn't real, was surprised to find out that it had been in fact, real! But... sometimes I wonder if it even happened at all, because even if I have evidence that it was real... it just still feels unreal. I guess it was a good thing that it was the criminal who had died instead of me, ne? It would had been horrible if I died like that just because I had an moment of foolishness!"

The Therapist just kept on nodding to what Misa said, as if he basically agreed with everything she said.

It was then the timer on the man's desk started beeping.

"Oh, it seems our time is up. Why don't you go sit outside while I talk to your parents?" The man replied.

Misa nodded. "Will do!"
With that, she walked out of the office, and told her parents that the therapist wanted to see them inside.

They went inside, and then Misa slumped into one of the waiting chairs, and said aloud: "Man, that was so boring!"

Khepfi had chosen to go with her this whole time... and she just simply nodded in agreement.

“ Say… ”Misa discreetly whispered to the Shinigami as not to catch the attention of others, “ will you go back into there, listen to what they’re saying, and then report back to me? I want to know whenever the therapist thinks I’m crazy or not. ”

Khepfi scoffed. “Why should I do that? I’m not your servant. ”

“ Well, how about this? ” Misa continued to whisper, “ I noticed that you had an strong fondness for meat… so I could give you that large kobe steak in the fridge that my family was supposed to have for dinner…that’ll be your reward, okay? ”

Khepfi smiled. “ Oh, very well. I’ll do it. ”

With that, the Egyptian Shinigami walked though the doors into the office.

Misa waited for a few minutes, reading an magazine as she did so.

Finally Khepfi came back, and then the Shinigami shrugged as she reported to Misa. “ I didn’t understand much of what the man was saying… But the basic gist of the conversation that I could understand was that he seemed to think that you were an perfectly normal girl. Just that you were suffering from a little bit of dissociation regarding the nightmares and the incident. He didn’t seem to think that you needed any treatment for that and should continue your life as normal. However he seemed to think that you should come back to visit him once a week, just to be on the safe side. He said that the majority of people world wide suffered from dissociation of various things in order to cope with stress and or the trauma and still didn’t suffer any mental problems. It was only the minority of people who actually suffered dissociation thanks to childhood abuse, etc. or something like that.”

Misa raised her eyebrows, nodding at her magazine. “Hmm… I see. ”

Her parents walked out of the office, and her father was shaking the man’s hand.

“Alright. I’ll have her see you next week then. Thank you so much. ”

With that, the Amane family walked out to the car. As Misa got into her seat she asked her parents: “ So… what’s the verdict? Is Misa going nuts in the head or what? ” With that she smirked.

Father sighed. “You know, for somebody who’s claiming to be so grown up, you sometimes refer to yourself in the third person. It makes you sound so childish…. And to be honest, it annoys me sometimes. So please don’t do that for your daddy. OK?”

“ Um, okay… ” Misa just shrugged at daddy’s request.

Mother shook her head, as she turned to look at Misa. “Oh no. you’re not crazy at all, dear. In fact the therapist gave you the stamp of good mental health. Uh, he just seems to think that you’ve been dissociating with that thing that happened in our house. So you’re going to see him once every week until he makes sure that the dissociation hasn’t become too serious and is just some harmless thing. ”

“ Oh, I see. So does this mean that I can continue my life like normal? Keep on modeling and all that? ” Misa asked her mother.

Her mother simply nodded.

“ Alright! ” Misa cheered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Light took off his shoes as he entered his house. He then went up the stairs, all the way to his bedroom.

But soon as he touched the knob, he knew there was something wrong. He opened the door, and then took a look around his bedroom.

Everything seemed to be normal… a little too normal. Somebody had noticed that little paper he had put up lately, and had went to the trouble to replace it. However, they missed the lead stick he had put in the hinges. That was broken… which meant that somebody had been in his room!

It couldn’t be his family at all… after all, they wouldn’t had bothered to put that paper back in place. If his mother had been cleaning around here, then she would even had picked up the paper and threw it in the trash.

He took off his university jacket, and then proceeded to search the place for anything that would had gone missing or were in the wrong place as opposed to where he had left it last.

As he was in the process of that, he stumbled across an camera device.

He ripped it out and then stared at it. No fucking way…. His bedroom was bugged and wiretapped?!

His mind raced, bringing up a list of possibities on why his room would be like this.

Every possibility he thought of all went back to it being Kira.

Why did everything always seem to be connected to Kira lately? That, or he was more obsessed with the idea of Kira than he thought.

At any rate… the bugs and the cameras meant that there was something big going on. This wasn’t something he could handle on his own.

He quickly took out the cellphone he had, and dialed his father’s number.

“ Dad? It’s Light. I know you’re busy working, but you’ve got to come quick, please. It’s an emergency! ”

Strangely enough, his father didn’t seem to ask why and just simply agreed to come right away.

Light waited for his father by the door, and around 20 minutes he finally arrived.

Unfounately, the rest of the family had also arrived at that point so Light couldn’t talk to his father outside of the house without his mother and sister asking questions.

So he dragged his father into the office study that his father had downstairs.
“ What is it, Light? ” His father asked. Soichiro had an slightly guilty look that he seemed to be doing his hardest to keep off his face, and failing halfway though.

Light mentally took note of that, as he went on to show his father the camera that he had ripped out of it’s hiding place. “I found this in my bedroom. The moment I walked into my bedroom, I just knew that somebody had been in my room and that it certainly hadn’t been the family. So I looked around to see if anything had gone missing or anything… that’s when I came across this. I get the feeling that there might be more in my bedroom and in the rest of the house. ”

Soichiro didn’t seem too surprised at all, and just stared at the camera device in light’s hand blankly. It almost seemed as if he was thinking about what to say without having to give himself away.

Light then stared at his father suspiciously. “You know who’s been doing this, right? I thought it might had been Kira at first with how I know you’re working on his case. I was worried that Kira was spying on us because of that… but now after seeing your reaction to this… I’m starting to suspect this isn’t the case. ”

Soichiro seemed to flinch at Light’s words. He then almost stuttered, “ Light…I’m sorry, I can’t tell you too much. But trust me when I say that this house is being put under watch for our safety, okay? ”

An thought occurred to him. Light then asked: “ Oh, I see… it’s L, isn’t it? You’re working with him now? ”

His father looked at Light, startled that his son would catch on to that little fact so quickly. “ Light..? How did you…? ”

Light just shrugged, as he explained: “ It was really just a matter of adding up the numbers once I looked at the bigger picture, dad. Ever since L’s broadcast, I knew that L was the sort who’d do anything to catch Kira. I also figured that he was one of those loner types who preferred working on his own when I profiled the sort of man L would be. However. knowing how powerful Kira is right now and the added fact that Kira’s around somewhere in our area, L also needed help from the police force. I figured that L isn’t the sort who would trust others very easily at all, so he’d be the sort who would investigate everyone in the local police force and their families. He’d do this in order to handpick which of the policemen he wanted to work with. When I caught that FBI man following me around, I knew then that there was an possblity that L was considering you as one of the select members of his Kira Investigation team.”

Soichiro blinked at this. Then he caught on to the last part. “ Wait… what FBI man? ”

Light tilted his head, looking vaguely puzzled. “ You mean he didn’t tell you about the FBI? ”

Soichiro slowly shook his head.

Light then answered, “ Well… it happened around a week ago. I was alerted to the presence of an suspicious man following me. To be honest, at first I thought he might had been some sort of pervert. I’m far from being an helpless young schoolgirl, obviously… but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve caught the attention of men like that. So I hid until he came closer, and then publicly cornered him so that he’d be forced to show me his ID. Once I saw that he was with the FBI, I knew it had something to do with Kira and you. ”

Soichiro frowned, seemingly annoyed that L had not told him about this at all.

Light started chucking. “ you know… I told that FBI man to pass on an message to L. I was actually annoyed that I had been followed around like that. So I passed on an message to him VIA the FBI guy, implying that L was wasn’t that great as he thought he was if he actually resorted to such an obvious tactic. In a way, I guess I deserved the camera being in my bedroom when I made fun of him like that… ”

His dad looked at Light with an puzzled expression. “ So, you’re not upset at all with this now? ”
Light shook his head. “ No. To be quite honest, I’m relieved to learn that it’s L and not some deranged criminal who bugged my room. At least I know now that our family isn’t in any danger now…. Far as I know anyway. Besides, it’s not as if he put cameras in Mom and sayu’s rooms, right?”

As Soichiro looked uncomfortable at the last bit, Light became shocked as soon as he realized what his father’s expression meant.

“ What? He actually did do that? But what happens when Sayu and mom’s undressing and stuff? I don’t mind if it’s only me but… watching women undress and stuff is something else entirely. Sayu’s only an 12-year-old girl, for god’s sake! You would have adult men watching her do things like that? That’s just wrong! ” Light protested.

Soichiro sighed, putting his hands on light’s shoulders. “ Light, I know how you feel. And you know what? I agree completely. But… L just wants to make sure that our families have no connection to Kira none whatever at all. He’s not doing this for perverted reasons… and I’m willing to go along with this if it means that it will clear our family of any suspicion. Plus, he’s allowed me to supervise this whole thing to make sure that this monitoring of our family isn’t being abused in some way. ”

Light frowned. He wasn’t happy with that at all… but alright.

“ Alright. There’s more than one camera in my bedroom, right? Well, I’ll go along with it and I won’t say anything to our family. I have nothing to hide after all! But it doesn’t mean I have to like it. ” Light finally said.

His father sighed, and just nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~

Light didn’t even hint to the rest of the family about the cameras, as promised. He did his everyday normal route as if he wasn’t even being watched at the moment, although he was just all too aware of the cameras… even though he didn’t know how many there was or where the rest of them were at.

He even had this weird feeling that he was being followed outside the house, but he just chalked it down to L again. So this time he didn’t even bother to look for the “ stalker ” or confront the one following him again. For all he knew, it was that FBI man again.

And so, the week passed faster than expected, and on Friday his father had told him that the cameras and such were going to be removed.

Light couldn’t help but feel relief at this. He didn’t like being suspected of anything… and not to mention there had been the issue of some man watching his little sister and mother undress and such. He couldn’t help but feel fiercely protective of his female family members… and he was sure that his father felt the same way.

That burden finally now off his shoulders, he was able to then focus on his college exams now without any distractions.

Or so he thought….

The day of the exams had started out fairly normal. He had gotten dressed, ate breakfast with his family, and then left for college after his family had wished him good luck on it.

He had entered the classroom where he was to take the exams, and then sat down at his usual spot.

That’s when it had started.

He had started to get that tingling sensation on the back of his head, like somebody was boring a hole right into his head with their stare.

He couldn’t help but turn around to look for the source… and that’s when he found a strange-looking man staring right at him.

The man had messy black hair, with eyes that seemed to be equally as black. He seemed to have dark circles under his eyes, as if he had not slept in a while. His skin was rather pale, like he hadn’t gotten out much. He had on an white T-shirt with sleeves, and baggy jeans.

But that wasn’t what was so strange about him. It was the fact that he was sitting in a rather strange way… with his legs pulled up as if he was sitting in an half fetal position. He apparently also weren’t wearing shoes at all… as seeing he had left it right on the floor.

Light was suddenly hit with a very strong sense of Deva ju. He had this weird feeling like he had seen this man before… in fact despite the man’s strangeness… his appearance felt familiar somehow.

Had he seen this man around before?

Light turned back to his own exam, figuring that he’d deal with this man later.

He fhinshed the test early compared to the other people in the classroom due to the fact that he had prepared for this test weeks earlier, and were able to ace it with relative ease.

Which meant that if he stayed here and waited for others to fhinsh, it’d be an hour. He wasn’t really in an mood to sit here and have the strange man behind him stare at him constantly for that long.

So he raised his hand, and told the teacher that he was fhinshed already. He then asked the teacher if he could be excused because he had to go to the bathroom.

The bathroom was obviously an lie, but he figured that the teacher wouldn’t had let him go otherwise.

“ I’m done with my exam here too as well. I also feel the need to go to the bathroom myself… ” The man behind him answered.

Light frowned at this. What the heck was this weirdo up to?

The teacher gave the pair an odd look but once he saw that the two had indeed fhinshed their tests, he let them go regardless of whatever they were really up to.

So the pair got up to go toward the door, the odd man choosing to walk barefoot as he was carrying his shoes with one hand.

Light got out of there first, and were to go off on his own when the man suddenly spoke to him.

“Hold on a second, Yagami-san. I want to talk to you.”

Light stopped in his tracks, and then turned to face the strange man.

“ Yes? What can I do for you? ” Light said almost too politely.

“ ah, allow me to introduce myself first… ” The man spoke, as he gingerly held out one hand for Light to shake. “ My name is Ryuga Hideki. ”

An western greeting, eh?

Light took his hand, returning the gesture. “ Ryuga Hideki? Like the movie star? Well, I’d introduce myself as well but apparently you already know my name… ”

The man nodded. “ Yes, we have the same name but I assure you, I have no relation at all to that movie star. ”

“ So…. What was it that you wanted to talk to me about? ” Light wondered.

Ryuga then stared up at him, with that wide-eyed stare of his that Light still found to be unsettlingly familiar for some reason. He placed his thumb upon his lips, as if he was about to suck it. He didn’t however.

“ Well… Yagami-san, is it true that you were the champion of the national tennis in high school? ”

Light blinked. He didn’t expect that question at all. “ Well, yes… that’s true alright. Why do you ask? ”

Ryuga smiled. “ Ah, I see! I was the champion of the English national tennis games in middle school myself. Tennis’s always been an strong interest of mine. ”

Light just nodded politely. He then asked: “Oh, you lived in England? ”

Ryuga nodded in return. “ Yes, I lived there for five years. I just recently returned to Japan to attend the university here. So I’m very new around the place. So far, you seem to be the kind of person who shares the same common interests as I do. And therefore would also like the same types of places that I might like as well. So I wanted to know if you’d like to show me around…if it’s too much of a bother for you then I understand.”

That actually sounded very reasonable… but for some reason Light couldn’t help but feel like that was something of an lie. Light disliked people who would lie so easily as if it was nothing, and it was that sort of thing that put him on edge. However something about this man made him feel that maybe he should keep an close eye on him instead of refusing him outright and walking away. After all, Ryuga had an overall suspicious atmosphere about himself.

So Light replied: “Well… I actually just started attending this university myself, so I’m still new to parts of this university as well. But I don’t see the harm in showing you the areas that I do know of so far. ”

Ryuga smiled. “Very well. Lead on, then. ”

So they walked around the university, talking about things in general as Light pointed out the areas of interest, such as the tennis court and the library.

It was then Light found out that they had enrolled for the same classes.

“ It’s kind of strange… you don’t seem to be the type who’s interested in psychology and Criminal law classes. ” Light couldn’t help but comment.

Ryuga glanced sideways at Light. “ Oh? What classes do I look like I would be interested in? ”

“ Well, uh… you seem like the type who’s a free spirit… ” Light couldn’t help but glance down at Ryuga’s bare feet as he said that, and then he looked up. “ So I guess you’d be more into physical sports since you said you had a strong interest in Tennis, and maybe something that would simulate your mind… like the Arts? I don’t know really… maybe I’m wrong. After all… you’re pretty much an stranger to me–I don’t really know you all that well. ”

Again Ryuga did that thumb thing, as he thought about something.

“ I see. Well, what about you? Why are you taking those courses? You also don’t seem like the type who would be interested in it, appearance-wise. ” Ryuga asked.
Light smiled. “ Well, I suppose it’s all thanks to my father’s influence. My father’s an policeman, you see. So from an early age I was interested in becoming an detective so that I could solve the unsolved cases and catch the criminals. In fact… I even got a little bit of an early start helping out my father with some cases too as well. I just enjoy things like that… you see, it challenges me mentally. If I didn’t have something like this that could challenge me in such a way, life would be completely boring for me.”

Ryuga nodded. “ I see! That’s very impressive… ”

Light then asked: “ So what about you? What’s your reasons for taking those classes? ”

“ The same as you, I suppose. ” Ryuga simply stated. “ I enjoy things that’s challenging as well. ”

It was then Light happened to glance at his watch. “ Oh! The hour’s almost over… it looks like we should go and collect our things. I guess this is good bye, Hideki-san.”

Ryuga nodded. “ I shall be seeing you around, Yagami-san. Maybe we should play tennis together sometimes. ”

“ sure. ” Light just nodded, and with that they both parted.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The next days were like that… with Ryuga and Light managing to run into each other at times, and then the two of them would wind up talking with each other, and spending time together.

Even the fact that the two had the top scores and therefore had to create and practice their speeches for the entrance ceremony together seemed to give Ryuga an excuse to spend time with Light Yagami.

He had even managed to get Light to play Tennis with him! Surprisingly enough, Ryuga had managed to become a rather challenging opponent in that area… and there had been times when Light was sure he was going to lose. And he nearly did!

Light was still naturally suspicious of Ryuga….even though his actions seemed innocent and were relatively harmless, Light couldn’t still shake off the feeling that Ryuga was lying… putting on some sort of ruse to get closer to him.

But at the same time… He couldn’t help but admit that a part of him did enjoy the eccentric man’s company. Ryuga was able to mentally simulate him with the conversations they had…which nobody else had been able to do for him for a large majority of his life.

They often debated about things that the two of them were interested in… such as whenever they believed in the death penalty or not.

They both had similar beliefs there. However the difference had been that Ryuga believed that some criminals should be simply indefinitely detained, and that some of them were able to be redeemed at times. He however, did see why they needed the Death Penalty for criminals who clearly couldn’t be rehabilitated at all.
Light however felt that indefinitely detaining the worst of criminals in prisons and the like were basically just an waste of the tax payers’ money, and also an waste of resources that could had been better spent on others. Light pointed out that while there certainly had been cases where innocent men and women had been convicted wrongly, a large majority of them hadn’t been innocent to start with. So therefore, Criminals who committed the worst felonies such as murder and rape should get the death penalty soon as possible.

“Even Kira? Would he get the Death Penalty quickly as possible too?” Ryuga had asked, his dark eyes boring right into Light’s as he spoke.

Slightly caught off guard, Light had blinked for a second, while honestly saying: “Yes. Even Kira. In fact that criminal is an rather good candidate for the death penalty if I say so myself. That man’s way too dangerous to keep alive!”

Ryuga simply smiled at this, as if satisfied with Light’s answer.

Light then couldn’t help but ask, smirking as he did so: “ So Ryuga… would you actually jail Kira for life if you could, or simply put an end to his life if you found him? ”

Ryuga did that thing with his thumbs again, as he pondered the question.

“ Quite don’t know yet. I guess it would depend on whenever there was a lot of unanswered questions that I wanted answers to once I had caught him. If there was a chance that keeping him in prison for life would help me get a lot of answers to those very same questions, then I guess I’d go with the first option. However… if there was a strong chance that he could keep on killing even when detained and still continue to be rather dangerous like that…. Then yes, I would have to say that he should be put to death. ” Ryuga finally answered.

Light nodded. “ Sounds reasonable. Although I have to wonder what sort of answers such an dangerous criminal like that could provide you with. What if it’s something that somebody else could had answered for you? ”

Ryuga then smirked… almost looking quite dangerously creepy as he did so. “Ah, but haven’t you ever wondered how Kira killed? He’s been killing criminals all over the globe, you know. I’d like to know how he’s been doing that myself. ”

Light nodded. “ You do have a point there…the way he kills is rather unique… I’ve actually been studying everything about him on the news myself, and trying to figure out he did it myself.”

Ryuga seemed interested in this. “ Any theories? ”

Light leaned back in his chair, sighing. “I don’t have much, actually. At first I thought it might had been some sort of underground organization with over a million people spread worldwide. But now the more I look at it… the more unlikely it seems. No, the more I look at it, it’s clearly one person doing all this. I’ve profiled him based on the pattern of the times the criminals died at.”

Ryuga chewed/sucked on his thumb a little bit as he stared at Light in that wide-eyed way of his. “ And? What is Kira like, according to your profiling? ”

“ Well, when you look at the times the criminals died then, they seem to die around early morning and very late at night. Very rarely, they’ll happen around the afternoon as well. This seems to tell me that our Kira leads a very busy, erratic life with almost hardly any time to himself. And then when he does have the time to himself, that’s when he starts killing. However, there’s also been recent kills that seems to have a different feel about them. that leads me to think that maybe there’s been one other person too… I think lately they’ve been taking turns killing the criminals. I also think one of them is the leader, while the another one is basically just an follower.”

Ryuga seemed to agree with this type of profile. “Yes, that does make sense. ”

And so the topic continued, with the two exchanging ideas and talking about Kira and such while continuing attempting to probe one each other to see if the other person had extra information that only Kira could had known.

For Light couldn’t help but wonder if Ryuga possibility had anything to do with Kira.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day of the entrance ceremony at the university seemed like one big blur to Light now that he thought back on it.

It had started off normally… and had even been downright boring until the time Light and Ryuga was told to take their seats.
It was here that Ryuga had taken the time to start talking to Light about Kira and all the other stuff. That made him wonder just what the hell Ryuga was up to, and what he was playing at ….

And that’s when Ryuga had dropped the bombshell…

“ I am L. ” he had said so simply, as if it had been nothing.

At first, an stunned Light had thought that maybe Ryuga was playing some sort of joke on him, and even told him that the Joke wasn’t funny.

However, Ryuga had kept on insisting that he was really “L”.

Naturally, Light then told him that he couldn’t believe that he could be L unless an third party that he trusted such as his father, could tell him that for sure. For all he knew, Ryuga could be Kira or one of his possible followers who were trying to gain his trust.

The conversation continued after the entrance ceremony at an little restaurant that Light had selected for the two of them.

It was then Ryuga/“L” asked him to look at those numbered cards which apparently had information left behind by criminals who had died at the hands of Kira.

In the written messages of each criminal, there had been those letters at the top which seemed to spell out an message for L.

Light then pointed it out. “And if you take those single letters from the top, it all spells out to say this: ‘L do you know that Shinigami steal the lifespan of humans?’… but this isn’t anything that could lead us to Kira at all… because obviously Shinigami cannot exist at all. ”

Ryuga then pulled out one more card, apparently testing Light to see what he would do then.

Light had an strange sense of deva ju then, but however he just calmly shrugged off the whole thing, saying that he must had been completely wrong then.

Then the two of them had gotten that awful phone call…

*~_~_~*

Which led to their now current location… the hospital.

Light was completely relieved to hear that just like with him, his father had simply suffered an heart attack due to stress and not from Kira.

The doctor who was now quite familiar with the Yagami family, wasn’t quite as pleased.

“ Damn it, you two! First I had Light Yagami in here for his heart attack, and then now I have you in here for the exact same thing? I can’t help but think that you two are placing all this stress on yourself on purpose! You two need to take better care of yourselves. Not even I can save you from such an unhealthy lifestyle forever, you know! ” The female doctor scolded the two Yagami men, as they both looked sheepish at this.

Ryuga looked at Light Yagami with renewed interest. “ You had an heart attack too? ”

Light just nodded, while Soichiro said that Light had gotten his heart attack because he had been too stressed out over the college exams.

As soon as the doctor left, the topic turned to that of Ryuga being L.

“ Oh, so Ryuga is really L after all? ” Light Yagami seemed genuinely surprised at this.

“ Yes. I’m sorry for not telling you, but we had to keep his ID secret for obvious reasons. ” Soichiro spoke, “ We’ve been calling him Ryuuzaki at work instead of calling him L for the same reasons. ”

Light then looked at L in a whole new light. “ So, the true reason that you went to university and put cameras in my room was to make sure that I wasn’t Kira?”

L simply nodded at this.

Soichiro looked at L. “So have spending the time with my son cleared up any suspicion you might had? ”

L nodded again. “Yes. In fact my suspicion of him has dropped down to only 0.5%. ”

“ Well… ” Light spoke, “Now that I know you’re really L, I’m willing to cooperate with you now on this case. I’m more than glad to help you out in any way I can. In fact…. I wouldn’t mind it if I could start working at headquarters with my father. ”

“ But light. You still have college to attend to… ” Soichiro protested. “You’ve got to work hard to get into the police academy. ”

Light sighed. “But dad, don’t you remember the promise I made you? ”

Soichiro blinked.

“ I promised you that if anything happened to you, that I’d catch Kira for you! ” Light replied, completely meaning it. “ Besides, I can always just take the online classes the university offers to make up for any classes I couldn’t attend to in person. There’s no problem there then.”

Soichiro looked touched for a moment there, and then just sighed since he couldn’t think of an good response to that. Light did have a point there…he was the type who could work on the Kira case and take online classes without it affecting his grades too much.

The nurse came in , saying visiting hours were over.

As Light and Ryuga/L walked down the hallway, Light sighed.

“I lied to my father, you know. ” Light replied.

That stopped L in his tracks. He turned around to look at Light. “About what?”

Light looked about the busy hallway. “I can’t really tell you here. Anybody could be listening. ”

L simply nodded at this, and pulled Light into what he made sure was some sort of empty room. He also made sure there was no cameras here, and then he nodded at Light. “Nobody’s here. ”

Light then went on with what he wanted to take off his chest. “I lied to my father about the cause of my heart attack, because at the time my little sister and my mom was there in the hospital room. And well, I didn’t want to involve them in that. I was going to tell him later on, but I never got around to it. Truth is, when I had my heart attack… I was witnessing an criminal dying from an heart attack. ”

That definely got L’s attention. His eyes were wide-eyed now, as he stared at Light for any sign of lying at all.

Light sighed, as he went on to tell his story. “The criminal’s name was Botan Tanaka. At the time, I had been studying everything I could get my hands on about Kira, even going as far to hack into my father’s computer and the police’s computers to find out anything I could about this Kira criminal. It was mainly because the case interested me greatly, and I wanted to help the police out in anyway I could. At the time, I couldn’t feel but like I had this vital clue sitting front of me… I just couldn’t find it at all even if it was sitting right under my nose. That sort of thing was frustrating to me, so I went down to this nearby bar to relax a little bit even though I normally don’t drink at all. It was there I ran into Botan Tanaka. ”

Light paused to catch his breath, as well as to figure how to word better the now fuzzy memories of the event.

He then continued. “ That man was truly an piece of shit, in my opinion. He had been recently found innocent in an case where he had raped and murdered this 12-year-old schoolgirl. And then there he was in the bar, bragging loudly to his friends about how he had done it, but it hadn’t really been his fault because of how the young girl had dressed too sexily in her school uniform or some shit like that. I’ll be very honest with you… that sort of thing just made me pissed off, and it was there in that bar that I quite publicly yelled at him and wished that he would just drop dead. We got into an fight there, and I got some quite nasty bruises on my face from that. ”

Another pause to catch his breath again. The story went on.

“The two of us had gotten kicked out of the bar for fighting. He was knocked out for a few seconds, and I didn’t feel like fighting anymore for some reason. So I got up and left towards the park where I often took my sister Sayu to play when she was much younger. Botan got up, and then followed me with his friends. He had been pissed that I had disrespected him or something like that. They were getting ready to beat me to death… when…. He had that heart attack. I’ll be honest here… from that point everything got fuzzy for me. The rest I don’t remember too well… But what I did remember…. I got the strangest feeling that I was being watched in that park, and I ran home as seeing Botan’s friends were too busy helping him to bother with me anymore. Then on the way home, I don’t remember his face too well… But I saw this man who frightened me for some reason. He was laughing, asking me if I had enjoyed his little gift. At least, I THINK he was an man…There was something really strange about him, that I can’t remember too well.”

Light frowned at that part, as trying to remember something. “I’m not sure actually. My memory of that event became very fuzzy as I told you. So I can’t remember details as well as I’d normally do. I don’t remember what was said between us, but I do seem to recall saying that I wanted nothing to do with him at all… and running all the way home to my room. It was there I had the heart attack. That’s all there is to the story.”

L was silent the whole time Light told him the story, as he pondered over every detail that Light told him.

And then he finally asked. “ So why would you tell me this? ”

Light just smiled. “I just wanted you to know the reason why I wanted to join the team. If there’s a chance that I had actually ran into Kira himself, and if he had actually made an attempt on my life…then that means that he’s became dangerous to me if it happens to be true. Just as there’s the possibility that he also might had made an attempt on my father’s life. I want him taken down, just not for myself but for the safety of my father as well. You agree that it’s very possible that he attempted to take my father’s life, as well as my own life, but failed for some reason? It may had turned out to be nothing but normal heart attacks but I just want to make sure all the same. ”

L put his thumb into his mouth again, chewing it as he thought about it. “ Yes, that’s certainly very possible…thank you for telling me. You’ve certainly given me a lot to think about. ”

An nurse walked into the room, and were startled to see the two men there.

“ What are you doing in here? This room is being prepared for patients… you better leave now. ” The nurse spoke while looking at them suspiciously.

“ We were just talking… I’m sorry, we’ll leave now. ” Light said politely, and so the two of them left the room.

The two walked out of the hospital.

Just as L was getting into his limo, Light called out. “ Just a minute! ”

L looked up at Light as he got into the car. “ Yes? ”

“ About me joining the team… I won’t be able to help you until my father gets better. I would prefer that I watch over him first to make sure nothing happens. I’m sure you understand. ”

L nodded. “ Yes. I’ll see you after your father gets better, then. ”

Light waved him off as the limo drove off into the dark night.
=======================================================================

Yeah, I sort of sped things up a little bit there… but I couldn’t help it. It would had been an pain to type out things as they happened day by day….

Plus, I was just plain anxious for Light and L to finally meet, and also to finally dedicate an whole chapter to L and what he had been doing this whole time in his own viewpoint.. Which comes next chapter!

I also felt that It was important to have Light talk to L about what happened to him…this was actually an scene that I had in my head for a while.. And this was the scene that helped me start this whole story. :)

Review as always, lords and ladies! \^_^/