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A Doppelganger\'s Bet	By : pinkfeline Category: Death Note > Yaoi-Male/Male > L/Light Views: 3881 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
Chapter Eight
Light watched the detective curiously, examining his rather strange behaviour. He recognised the wariness in the detective’s dark eyes and managed to connect the earlier cause of suspicion to this one. If Light was not mistaken, L felt some kind of physical effect whenever he came into contact with Light's insubstantial body. What he felt, Light could not tell, but it certainly seemed to have unnerved the detective somewhat.
A flicker of hope alighted somewhere within his being, though he repressed it greatly in case it proved to be false. Just because the detective could somehow 'feel' him, did not mean that he could help him.
L returned to his seat on one of the expensive hotel sofas, legs curling up against his chest in an all too familiar way. One hand rested palm down on one knee while the other travelled to the ever-moving mouth, thumb pushing contemplatively against his lips. This is how the next fifteen minutes passed, with L thinking quietly to himself and Light watching the detective. It was terribly boring. There was no facial change or any bodily movement that indicated the direction or nature of L's thoughts. It was like watching paint dry, though even that may have had at least some aesthetic value.
Like this, Light could learn nothing from the detective to help him either way, and that was no doubt the reason L was doing this. L was suspicious.
The tedium of silence and inactivity was broken when the shrill ring of a mobile phone split the air. L and Light both jumped at the sudden piercing sound and glared in sync at the offending device. L reached over and retrieved the phone, greeting the person on the other end of the line with a cold sharp, 'Yes?'
There was silence for a while as a quick explanation followed from the other end, too quietly for Light to pick up without possibly alerting L to his proximity once again. L was on edge as it was. Instead, Light took a seat on one of the couches opposite the detective and waited. L ended the conversation quickly with an ambiguous, 'Thank you,' before ending the call. With a last weary glance around the room, L stood and moved over to the computer and seated himself in front of it.
Light watched it all with some fascination and no little expectation. He had at times wondered what it would be like observing the world's greatest detective at work. He had never quite considered that it might at all be as boring as he had thus far experienced. He reigned in his impatience and settled more comfortably in order to watch. That was, after all, the reason Kira had ordered him to follow L.
L was currently shifting through the police database and records without any apparent purpose. That is, until a certain profile came up. Light recognised the man only because Kira had been looking at the exact same file the night before. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Light at once understood that the man was dead. Death by heart attack, no doubt. Not wanting to see what family was left behind to grieve an honest man's passing, Light let his attention wonder in a state of melancholy.
Another hour must have passed before L moved away from the computer. Light followed part of the way before he came to realise L's intended destination. Watching L relieve himself was not on the agenda as specified by Kira. He was about to return to his seat when an idea came to him. Light was well aware of the possibility of speaking to L using the computer. Pressing keys was easier than writing with a pen in his current state after all, and would not require half as much concentration.
So what stopped him? Quite simply, leaving a message for L, stating whom he was and what was happening would probably not go down very well. The statement itself would probably be viewed as a prank, a bad one at that. If he typed his message on the computer, it could be explained away as a hacker playing mind games. And it could really end up badly for him. He could still make use of the ability though. The key to make it work was trust.
Simply stating that Kira had taken over his life and was pretending to be him would get him no-where, due to the fact that L could not viably trust the truth of neither the statement nor the source. By appearance, L seemed able to accept, even reluctantly so, the possibility of a supernatural element in Kira's way of killing. That opened the detective up to the possibility of 'spirits', so if Light played his cards right, maybe he could get L to trust him as some benign invisible helper. It would be one hell of a challenge though.
With that in mind, Light turned to the computer; he did not have much time. L was already suspicious, so in order to gain trust the first step was to acknowledge his presence. If his intentions were dark, he most certainly would not make L aware of him. And surely L would come to a similar conclusion. But that on its own was not enough.
It just so happened that Light knew whom Kira intended to kill next. The doppelganger had never made an attempt to keep it a secret from him after all and chose his victims beforehand with much care. Light could not prevent the man from dying and neither could L, but there was a use for the knowledge. With that in mind, he set to the hard task of manipulating the computer with insubstantial hands. It took him longer than he cared for, and he was gritting his teeth in frustration before the end of it. A few minutes had passed and Light vaguely wondered what was taking L so long; not that he was ungrateful. He wanted this done before the detective returned so that he could analyse the reaction carefully.
At last he was able to step back. On screen the profile of policeman Sho Kiriyama stared back at him. Light had never met the man, despite his somewhat frequent trips to the police headquarters and back, but still he felt a consuming guilt in the knowledge that the man would die in the next two days. He could not sit so he made do with pacing, waiting for L to return from whatever he was doing. Surely he could not have gone to the toilet this long?
It was another five minutes, about the time that Light decided to track down the elusive L, when said man re-entered the room. A large slice of cake was balanced on a plate that looked a little too small to accommodate it, his other hand clutching delicately at a steaming hot brew that Light could not identify at this distance. He mourned briefly for his loss of sense of smell before turning to the matter at hand.
L had caught sight of his computer, and by the deceptively calm façade, Light could tell that L knew the computer had been tampered with. But his reaction was perhaps a little too calm. Light felt his eyes narrow as he glared at L contemplatively. He had not been watching L long, but somehow he was sure that L was not in the habit of getting his own food. That he took his own sweet time doing so made it all the more suspicious. It was not like the L that he had profiled thus far.
A niggling suspicion that L had been hoping for and maybe expecting his 'ghostly' visitor to act in some visible way crawled into Light's thoughts. Had he played into a simple trap like that? It did not matter; let the detective underestimate his intelligence, as long as it did not affect his chances of winning this godforsaken bet.
So he stepped back and watched. Watched as L examined Sho Kiriyama's file. Watched the guarded expression spread through the lanky form of the detective. Light watched and planned.
-----
Held in place by pinched forefinger and thumb, the spoon cut through the muddy brown liquid in a slow and predictable circular pattern. L considered stirring the spoon counter clockwise and seeing the effect it would have on the swirling coffee. But he did not, as his thoughts returned to the situation at hand and the spoon stilled.
In the last two weeks, six policemen had died, and a seventh was being carefully observed. The man was apparently to be Kira's next victim. He would be the last, too, if the police had anything to say about it. When the fact that Kira was targeting the police had become too obvious to ignore, the force fighting against Kira had all but withered away. Men feared for their lives and looked to dissociate themselves with L and the whole matter entirely. Many of those men who had deserted and even those who had already died had families and so L could understand at some level. Still, it did not keep the resentment at bay.
He had expected something like this to happen eventually, but it did make his work more difficult. Glancing to the side, he quickly scanned the faces of the few who decided to risk all in order to bring a very dangerous criminal to justice. L's attention returned to his coffee.
Yagami Soichiro, Touta Matsuda, Shuichi Aizawa, Kanzo Mogi …and Hideki Ide.
According to his 'source', Hideki Ide was the next and hopefully the last policeman to die in Kira's plans. Currently the man resided in a special room within the headquarters, under the careful observation of Aizawa and Soichiro. To Mogi had been given the task of finding a pattern in the police killings, a job he would have done himself had he not been so distracted by other thoughts. Matsuda was catering to everyone else's needs. The investigation was pretty much at a standstill.
L considered his unlikely source of information, his eyes flickering to the computer screen before him before considering his cooling coffee once more. The strange itchy sensation of eyes boring into his back did not lessen, and had not done so for many hours. It made him tense and irritable, a mood the task force had quickly picked up on.
Whoever his invisible visitor was, it had correctly predicted each death of the last two weeks. He had considered it the work of Kira, taunting him with the inability to save a man's life, but his thoughts were uncertain. So tonight he waited with barely concealed impatience for the task force to realise their efforts were futile and retire for the night.
L wanted to confront the entity that had been glaring holes in his back for the last two weeks. When he could take it no more, he more or less ordered the investigators to leave and asked Watari to keep an eye on Hideki. With the silence that fell in the others’ departures, L felt a thrill of excitement. He was finally going to act on this insanity and hopefully get some answers.
Putting his cold coffee aside, he opened a simple chat window and rolled his chair out of the way. Glancing around the empty room and feeling a slight awkwardness at his actions, he addressed the unknown entity.
"Who are you?"
There was no change. No sudden chill, or voice or movement. Still L waited, refusing to believe that he was making himself a fool. A key pressed down on the computer keyboard followed by others at the touch of unseen hands.
'L, A poltergeist bleeds red'
L stared at the familiar message, taking note of the absent words within the statement. A poltergeist was a phenomenon that has plagued mankind for centuries and was a very controversial topic. Commonly considered as being a spirit of a deceased person, or simply a mischievous and often harmful 'spirit' that has the ability to affect the physical. Others consider it to be an emotional imprint or a form of kinetic energy.
The note mentioned the fact that the 'poltergeist' had the ability to bleed, meaning that it had a physical body. That the note was not written in the past tense, well it could be said that the body is still living.
L considered this for a moment, before looking to the screen and asking his next question. He was interrupted however by the arrival of Watari; a cart of sweet pastries and cakes as well as a pot steaming with warm tea was pushed to the detective's side.
Watari paused before taking his leave, asking with some concern after L's health. L looked at him askance, to which Watari mentioned that L appeared a little 'wild-eyed'. Smiling slightly to ease his guardian's nerves, L thanked him for the treats and turned back to the computer. Watari made no mention of the words on the screen and left quietly.
L sighed in relief and formed his question once more.
"You are human?"
'Yes'
The answer came more quickly this time, much to L's joy.
"Do you know who Kira is?"
Here there was a pause, and after five minutes of waiting L accepted that the 'poltergeist' was not going to answer. It seemed they were both wary.
"Do you serve Kira?"
L could almost feel the sense of agitation and indecision that the spirit was feeling and wondered at the cause.
'No'
"But you know who he is?"
'Yes'
"You won't tell me who?"
'No'
"Why not?"
'A poltergeist bleeds red'
"Ah, so you are under threat, is that it?"
'Yes’
"Do you still have a body?"
'Yes'
"Do you know where it is?"
Again the sense of hesitation came. Why?
'Yes'
L was getting excited; he was going to get answers, one way or another.
"Will you tell me where your body is?"
'Yes'
What followed was a strange address, one that L immediately set to investigating. He would not go himself; he was no fool after all. Maybe he could send Matsuda? No, in a ruined house the young cop's clumsiness would get him seriously hurt and turn him into a serious liability. He would send Mogi. Aware that he had started to ignore his 'guest', L asked one more question.
"Is Yagami Light Kira?"
The dessert cart crashed to the floor.
-----
To say Light was restless would have been a major understatement. Had he revealed too much? Was he putting himself in danger? Had he condemned himself by his own foolish actions? Questions and doubt jostled against each other in his mind, fighting to be heard and leaving him with a severe headache.
He had not meant to react as he did to L's last query. He had thought L finished with the questions and had begun to withdraw, passing the cart just as the question was asked. Light would stay away from large objects the next time he was sure to be unpleasantly surprised. His reaction alone could condemn him to hell or to prison with hell following shortly after.
He suffered alone, L looking mightily pleased with himself. Light wished vehemently to wipe that smirk of the detective's lips. But his father and the other investigators were present. All except Kanzo Mogi. The stoic policeman was on his way to the house ruins, where his body was hidden. Light could only hope that when they found it, they would look at the 'Light' going about his daily routine and make the correct assumption. The 'Light' going about business was fake.
In the next ten minutes, he could win the bet. He could save himself. Almost five months into the bet and it could be over. Then he would need worry only in keeping his name clear and himself out of prison.
Mogi's voice drifted into the room through the communication device stating that he had arrived. Light held his breath, his body going stiff with tension. The minutes passed. Light had specified the room that his body was being kept in; they could not miss it.
The passing minutes were tense for the whole investigation unit. Waiting to see whether Mogi would be struck down, or whether a body would be found that could aid them in their hunt for Kira.
"There's nothing here."
Mogi's voice came through loud and clear, and yet Light struggled to make sense of it.
"You have the right room?"
The question was L's.
"Yes. There is no body here, however there is evidence that someone else had been in here recently. Possibly in the last two days."
Cold dread turned to burning rage as the words processed through Light's mind. Kira had cheated. Kira had fucking moved his body. Without his body, Light could not prove that Kira was the fake. Without that body, 'Light' would become the prime suspect by Light's own stupidity. The terrible knowledge clawed like ice where his heart should be, an almost physical pain. He did not notice as glass shattered around him, the alarmed cries of the investigators or the wide-eyed gaze of the world’s greatest detective trained on the spot where he stood.
Fuelled by rage, Light ran, swept through all obstacles without a thought as he raced to confront his doppelganger. In his wake, he left a room in chaos. The occupants were cut and bruised with a very smug L.
-----
Despite the gloom and the late hour, it was not too hard to make out the features belonging to the prone body of a young man. Having gathered a thin layer of dust and by the pale sliver of moonlight, the handsome face looked like a sculpted porcelain doll, lost to time within the ruins of the house. Or just a perfectly preserved corpse, really.
She reached out and slid one perfectly manicured finger down the smooth curve of one cheek, watching as she traced a slithering line through the dust. She traced then, with much care, the closed lids with its delicate lashes and the sharp but neat brows. Yes, the boy looked like a handsomely sculpted doll.
Remaining crouched even as she withdrew her wandering hand, she stared at the prone form with something approaching wistfulness. A shuffling movement behind her right shoulder made her glance back in slight reproach. The gold of one baleful eye glared back at her, to which she took no offence. She was well used to the sullen moods of her Shinigami and had ceased to give them mind even to wonder their cause. She returned her attention to the man and let out a heavy breath in a somewhat dramatic sigh.
"He is very handsome, isn’t he? It is a pity that he will die."
The pout in her voice could not be mistaken for anything else. The Shinigami at her side offered no comment, to which the girl sighed again. Really, Rem was way too uptight and boring.
Amane Misa stood, grimacing as her leg muscles protested. She stretched her legs gingerly and then her back for good measure. Letting her hands rest on the curve of her hips, she examined the body anew with a more critical gaze. The teen was slim but made up for his lack of bulk by being tall. She frowned as she considered him and then her surroundings. How on earth was she meant to remove the body and take it somewhere else?
She could take his arms or his legs and drag him out, but the floors were littered with stone and debris, and Misa was not sadistic enough to have the unnamed teen suffer so. Even if his life span was in quick decline and would probably never wake to gain offence for her actions. Besides, that would take forever! With a huff she turned on the pale form of her constant deathly companion and glared resentfully.
"How am I supposed to move him!? He'll be heavier than me!"
Rem frowned at the whine in her human's voice, feeling the human urge to roll her eyes, a habit often employed by Misa. She contemplated her actions, tuning out Misa's incessant whinging as unimportant background noise. She was fond of the girl, but sometimes it was hard when the girl tried to be as annoying as possible.
With a long-suffering sigh, Rem took hold of the human boy's shoulders and lifted.
"Take his feet"
Misa snapped her mouth closed and quickly obliged. The heavy thud of her heavy boots and the crunch of each footfall were all sound that accompanied them. They were halfway through the last hallway when Misa let the feet she had been holding drop. She bent over and took a deep breath. Her arms were hurting and she kept stumbling over things that she could not see within the darkness. She should have worn different shoes, ones that were not quite so bulky or heavy. She'll have to remember that next time she carried a body off somewhere in the dead of the night.
Having caught her breath, Misa decided to voice her irritation.
"Rem, you're a Shinigami! Doesn't that make you, like, really strong or something?"
"No."
The girl blinked at the bland answer, and quietly picked up the boy's feet again while shooting confused looks at her partner. She did not complain again, seeing that Rem was already taking the brunt of the weight.
Silence settled between them once more, all the way to the borrowed car. Misa considered putting the body in the trunk with a giggle, but admitted to herself that that would look highly suspicious if anyone saw her drag it out again. Instead if she put the body in the backseat; she could at least claim that her boyfriend had passed out after too many drinks and that she was taking him back to their apartment…or something like that anyway.
The engine's roar seemed so much louder in the dark of the forest, and Misa sighed in relief when she pulled into a street and drove away.
-----
Kira stood by the window, looking out at the world from the safety of 'his' room. It had been something different, to experience Light in a rage. Amusing most certainly, as well as somewhat enlightening. However the amusement faded with Light’s furious departure, and the problem he now faced came to the forefront of his concerns. The kid's body had gone missing, something he had not had a hand in. That was somewhat perplexing. Kira had spent many days and nights observing the ruined house within the forest and had seen no living being pay it any mind but for the untamed earth. That was why he had chosen it to bear the secret of his intentions, before and after the bet had been made.
The room had been well into the heart of the ruins; no sane human would casually enter it. But then, he had learned that humans did strange things for strange reasons. If some hapless fool had found the body, then it would have been reported and the body extracted. Such an occurrence would mean paperwork and reports. Queries into the identity of the deceased, considering the body appeared dead. So Kira had checked into the files and reports of the hospital and police station. He had searched for any reference to a body found at the ruins, whether the identity had been made known or not. However he found nothing at all.
This was where the trouble began though. Kira had known when he first devised the bet that his own kind and the lords on high would not take his defection lightly. No, he had been prepared for a form of retribution, and in his high of being worshipped, Kira had never questioned the lack of action. An oversight that would cost him dearly, convinced as he was that this was the doing of a Shinigami. They were after all the only other beings that could reside on earth for any length of time, and would have reason to.
If Light's body had been taken by the 'higher ups' of death, then it would only be a matter of time before Kira got caught. They would discover his stolen identity and would find him. At the same time, the crude link he had forged between Light and himself would lead them straight to Kira no matter where he ran. The link was the basis on which the bet worked. From the link was the doppelganger able to take the appearance and mannerisms of his chosen human. Another link, far more difficult to spot even by 'the eyes', existed between their minds. And it was with this knowledge that Kira formed a plan.
The rules of the bet were very open and few, and he risked nothing in going through with his plan. Kira was not quite ready to return to an eternity of mind-numbing and insufferable duty. He did not think that he would ever be satisfied again after this. The Shinigami king would know this and destroy him, or decide to punish him by keeping him in servitude, mourning the freedom he had tasted so briefly.
Stepping back into the shadows, Kira took a last glance around the room. It would be a while before he would see it again. For now, he would do what was needed in order to survive. As easily as the link was forged on that one night many months ago, so it was broken.
Looking down at its hands, the doppelganger saw once more the hands of his true form. Distaste would have twisted its face had it not remembered the reason for doing this. Unseen it slipped from what had been its 'home' for the past four months and faded into the night.
TBC
A/N: I'm sorry for updating so late, everyone, but real life has a tendency to get in the way. Kati-chan has again beta-ed this chapter for me, many thanks to her. This chapter does push events forward a little, because I remembered how I originally intended this story to be only eight chapters long, so I figured I should get the story moving. I hope that it was still enjoyable to read, at least. And I managed to introduce Misa-chan! I didn't originally have a place for her in this fic, but plans have a habit of changing. Anyway, hopefully you will be seeing another chapter soon, though I make no promises!
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A Doppelganger\'s Bet