CHAPTER 4: CONFRONTATIONS

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DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Death Note

...

CHAPTER 4: CONFRONTATIONS

YAGAMI RESIDENCE

Light lay down to his bed immediately after going up to his meticulous room. He just stared at the ceiling and Ryuk followed his line of sight out of curiosity. "What are we lookin' at again?"

Light did not respond.

"Oi. Light."

"You've been like that since you saw them." Ryuk commented a few hours prior when Light went for a 'walk' (as he said it) and saw her with Takeda and Rokko… looking as if she was having fun. Light frowned at his irritating Shinigami.

"Shut up, Ryuk."

The Death god shrugged and a moment later, Light sat up and went straight to write names on the notebook again.

"You sure are busy, Light."

"I am. Gods are supposed to be busy."

"Ehh…"

"Here, let me show you something." Light said confidently and opened his screen. And told him something about how humans maintain a public façade – a façade that will not accept his existence. But he showed them all the encouraging posts on websites made just for him.

"They could feel it Ryuk: the hand of god reaching out to the criminals and killing them... passing judgement."

"Cool." He commented and, as if on cue, the door knob turned.

"Ara? Nii-san? Why is the door locked?" It was his sister, Sayu, asking for help with her Math homework. Of course being the perfect brother that he was, he didn't refuse.

"Sure," he said and Sayu squealed in delight, skipping into his room.

But then Ryuk muttered that anyone who touched the note would see him too, and this made Light want to punch him. He waited until now to tell him this detail?

'Damned Death god.'

...

An hour later, Sayu stretched her arms as if she did all the work. Light sighed and stared at the book. He worry about his sister sometimes, she should be doing much better than this in school. She was carrying the Yagami name, after all, and his sister. She should try harder to excel.

"Arigatou nii-san!" she yelled giving him a bear hug. "And I think dinner's ready."

He let out a chuckle that was characteristic of Sayu's older brother, hiding the disapproval he felt over his sister's antics.

"Hai, Hai."

...

She felt bad about using him as bait, but she chose him because of the fact that he was going to be executed right this time, and extending his life by a few days was not supposed to be bad. If he wasn't, she probably would have chose another inmate and maybe changed his name. It was stupid on her part to consider something like that, but she couldn't do it: Nonchalantly sacrificing people's lives. Criminal or not.

But in the end, this was the best choice she had and it was not as appalling as the other options. She even lengthened this criminal's lifespan and somewhat made him (without his consent) help with the greater good.

That's right, she told herself for the nth time, this was the best choice.

So… what was that ominous feeling that she was having?

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Her eyebrows furrowed. It was weird how she was suddenly hearing such onomatopoeia when there was not one analog clock in that room. She watched the man speak confidently, as she instructed him to. And then her mental clock started acting-up again, time was slowing down—as if there was something bad going to happen soon.

Her worst case scenario... was it going to happen?

"…I can guess what your motives are." L listened carefully as the riskiest statement neared; it was the statement that would make this Kira move. "But what you are doing… is evil."

Her hands clenched her shirt, scared. Many long seconds passed and soon she was able to relax a little. It was ridiculous, after all, her hypothesis. She might be wrong, but it is a relief that no one held that amount of power—

BAM!

The next thing she knew, the man was gripping his chest, and he dropped dead on the table.

In less than a minute after Lind L. Tailor finished the heart-felt speech that she wrote, he had undergone cardiac arrest. She felt as if she had been slapped hard—just like that—and for the longest moment she was frozen. This can't be true, she chanted inside her head. How is this possible? She asked, even when she had already knew what it was. She just could not believe it was true.

Watari had to shake her crazily for her to catch her composure. "Confront him. You must regain your composure, L."

She tried to hide all emotions away for a while and opened her mic. "…I can't believe it." She began, trying her best to get rid of the shakiness evident in her voice. "I didn't think it was possible; I tested it just in case."

Lawliette gulped. "You can kill a person without having to be there."

She told him Lind L. Tailor was not her, but a criminal in death row, captured in absolute secrecy. "It seems that even you do not have access to these type of criminals," she uttered.

She monotonously stated her trap. It was unbelievable how she could say such objective things despite all the emotions that flowed through her. It—no, everything—was becoming utterly absurd. She definitely considered the fact that this b-bastard could kill without touching them... but actually seeing the person die was beyond her.

She looked at herself, sardonically.

Why was she even doing this when she obviously couldn't handle all the consequences?

She shook her head and told herself that she had planned (and chose) this. Maybe she hoped it would not work, but it did and there was no turning back. Someone died like this because of her actions, it was time to make sure it did not go to waste.

Her hand gripped her mic tightly, a wave of anger finally reaching its peak. "Kill me!" She dared him. "What's wrong? Kill me!" She breathed in. "Go on, kill me!"

This went on for many seconds, approximately the amount of time it took Lind L. Tailor to die. She did not deny she was terrified, albeit not as much as for her life than for the power that loomed over them. But nothing happened to her, and she breathed out: Kira was not omnipotent. Not yet.

She let out a deep, deep breath to calm down. She needed to lay out her data and theory smoothly. But something else simply wouldn't stop poking her right in the chest.

It was official – Kira was in Tokyo, with her.

And she wasn't sure if she'll be able to walk on the ground again.

...

SLAM!

Light's fist found itself getting slammed on his desk in his anger. He glared at the television and gritted his teeth. He, Light Yagami, had never felt so... humiliated in his entire life!

Not only did he deduce that he was in Kantou and that he could kill without being near the victim... but that bastard L had called him evil when he was obviously the only true JUSTICE left in the world. He was going to be a god, and that hypocritical piece of crap who was trying to stop him was the truly EVIL one.

There was something in that person's voice that disconcerted him in a different way, but at the moment he didn't care. The bastard was taunting him to kill him, but not knowing anything about him rendered Light unable to do so.

"It seems that for some reason he cannot kill me."

Bastard

Light continued to send daggers to the television and listened to this L as he stated that he would soon send him to his execution for certain.

Light laughed at the stupidity of the synthetic voice that echoed across the whole region. Light was sure he was not going to lose to anyone– especially not to this devil.

He was going to find him. And kill him with his own hands.

...

TODAI

A few days had passed since then and Lawliette felt extremely strained. She had been working with the Japanese Police Force since then and a lot of people seemed to have nothing to do but pretend to know something about Kira or be Kira. She frowned at the fact that so many people were dying every day.

She had told them the possibility that the culprit might be a student, considering the time of deaths. It surprised them, but she told them firmly never to be biased. They had to consider all possibilities to capture this person. She could only hope that she was right: that he would need to know the person's face and name before killing them, a hypothesis that will be proven or disproven very soon. It was sad and she would rather not admit it, but her opponent this time was extremely intelligent and powerful.

She had not handled a lot of cases, but she knew this would be the hardest one she would ever take.

Her stomach churned at this person's idea of 'justice'.

She had been especially quiet during their lunch, and she knew the two could sense her troubles. Obviously, she didn't tell them anything and she just ensured them that she was fine and there was no need to worry. They left earlier again that day and she decided to walk around for a change.

A change. She wondered when she would be able to stop these killings and maybe killings in general. A little part of her, of course, understood that what he was doing really diminished the crime rates. But an even bigger part of her knew that it was not a solution. Taking a life never was.

It was repeating an evil cycle that would never end.

She felt so tired… and before she knew it, she ended up in the library. Maybe she went there so she could sleep nicely on a desk. But as she looked for an isolated spot, her movement stopped. She saw Yagami writing vehemently and wearing that especially serious face that she had seen him wear more often than she would have liked.

He didn't seem as strained as before though, it felt as if he had let go of something she did not understand yet. But she did not like it; she knew that this was not really the Yagami Light that she knew. This one scared her.

"Yagami-kun." She called and smiled and noted how he closed his notebook. It was as if he was acting that he was just nonchalantly closing and hiding his notebook when she could feel the abruptness of it all.

She wasn't able to pry though, she was too tired.

"Ryuzaki-san…? What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for a place to sleep…" she stated and stared at the empty seat beside him. Light caught this cue and gestured for her to sit down and told her to get some rest.

"Your eyebags had evolved. What the heck are you even doing at night?" Light said in an almost joking way that refreshed him somehow. It had been more than a week since he actually spoke to her, hadn't he?

"This and that." She smiled, and Light knew she was hiding something. He stared at that depressed state her eyes were showing so bluntly. He frowned. Was she okay?

But he did not utter a single word of the question and decided to make his usual snide comments. "You could at least answer my question."

She stared at him with those deep dark eyes of hers making him flinch, again. He saw them flicker with tiredness and he let out an amused smile. She smiled at him weakly, and he just listened to her talk herself to sleep. "I'll... think abou… just wake me up… for…t..he…next…c..la…Zzzzz"

Light smirked at the sight and arranged her hair so that she could breathe properly.

He had just finished writing the names of the criminals and timed their deaths one hour apart to send a challenge to this L. So what if he knew he was a student? Light was not to be underestimated. And in two days, they should be fairly certain about this fact and—better—given how he knew of this crucial information, L would suspect his only allies.

In any case, he had all the time in the world to relax for a while as he waited for things to unfold.

He continued to stare at the figure sitting beside him, sleeping peacefully. He wondered what she was doing to her health. She might get sick soon enough an—Why did he even care? It's not like she'd die of sleep deprivation…

"Ehh, Light, you look like a normal school boy when you're like that." Ryuk commented with a cackle. Light didn't answer, both because he didn't notice what he was doing, and second was that he might wake her up by answering to that damned Shinigami.

He sighed and opened one of his school books to study. They did not have classes for their Asian History class, but because she skipped that class the previous session so she probably wouldn't know. It wasn't like her to skip classes, and he didn't know what could be happening to her.

He placed his elbow on the surface and rested his cheek on his palm as he continued to watch her. He'd rather not think that he was worried for her. She's a grown woman now and she could take care of herself, after all. But if he was worried…

And to think they haven't spoken for so long…

Perhaps it was because he thought of her as a rival now? Indeed, things would be less interesting without a good rival.

And for what seemed like only moments later, he looked at the clock and he flinched instantaneously. It had already been an hour? He accidentally hit a book in surprise and dropped it to the floor, effectively waking Lawliette up. She stared at him and he cleared his throat.

"About time you woke up."

"How long?" she asked lethargically.

"More than an hour…"

"Ah?" her eyes widened immediately making Light want to chuckle. "I'm going to be late."

But halfway before she stood up, she sat back down, and robotically turned her head to him. She frowned and gaped. "Are we not classmates, Yagami-san?"

"We are."

"Then why—"

"We don't have classes. If you didn't skip classes maybe you will know."

"Ah…" She uttered, now relaxed on her seat. "I see…"

A companionable silence occupied the space between them for a moment, until he opened up a random book to study anything. She only stayed like that for a while, and even began watching him as he studied.

Soon realizing that he could not concentrate, he sighed and flopped his book close. "Why did you skip? You may lose your spot."

"I won't. Maybe. I don't know." She shrugged and then shifted her gaze from the book to him so inquisitively that it made him wince under it. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"You seem… different."

"I don't see how…" he paused. "You're the one who seems stressed out."

She looked at the table, suddenly deep in thought.

"What's wrong?" He asked, bothered at how genuinely eager he was to ask.

Further silence ensued for a while and Light stared. She was thinking of something complicated, wasn't she? He wanted to hear it (just out of curiosity, naturally), which was why he patiently waited for her to speak. After a while, she did. "I just found out... several days ago that the world—" She sighed. "...was much worse than I thought it was."

She stared at her closed fist over the table top, not noticing Light's gape. An odd sense of glee surrounded him, but he kept it contained. He wanted to punch Ryuk for snickering so loudly. "So..." he intervened and decided to be blunt. "What do you think of Kira?" He knew she'd be honest with him and she won't say anything pretentious and hypocritical like 'Kira is an evil perso—

"Kira is evil."

He unconsciously clenched his fist, and now that Ryuk was not stifling his laughter he swore that if he wasn't as stoic as he was he would have punched the Shinigami already.

She sensed the change in atmosphere and she whipped her head to him. "Yagami-kun?"

"I'm disappointed that you are like many other people who make politically-correct answers." He whispered, annoyance and disappointment filling his insides. "I thought you were different." He said everything in such a condescending tone of voice. He didn't know why he said them but he meant it. He knew he had a problem keeping his public façade around her but this was just too much, he knew, but he told himself that he shouldn't care. Not with her.

And yet his heart skipped a beat when he saw her expression: he had hurt her. She was looking at him with a mix of confusion and sadness.

"Sorry," he managed to say. "I did not mean to—"

"Yes, you did. Yagami-kun." She said sternly making him freeze, seemingly unable to shake off the hurt expression in her face.

"And I really did mean that. Eradicating evil with evil is an impossible task."

He frowned and forced himself to shake away whatever emotions other than irritation he was feeling. "Isn't that too close minded?" He asked. "I expected more from you."

"No, I do not think that is the case." She paused, giving him a curious and worried look. "What about you? You sound as if you approve of his methods."

This made him pause and raise his guard further, only then realizing just how much he had lowered it when he was with her. "I… I can't say I approve of it. It is just that what he was doing really is making the world a better—"

"He is not. He is using human lives as if they are toys that he can play around with to make himself feel like a god."

He glowered at her. But why was it that when she said it, it didn't just offend him… it sent him a wave of despair as well, regardless of whether he realized it or not. "How can you be so sure?"

She closed her eyes, and he frowned cautiously. When she opened her orbs again, he thought he had never seen her look so convinced before. "Because no one would take another's life for granted if he truly sees them as human beings."

"That's idiotically idealistic." He said immediately, almost wanting to scoff at her. "You said so yourself that the world is a dirty place."

This does not make her falter, however. "Yes, but it can be changed."

"How? Other methods will not work."

"Humans are intrinsically good, Light." She told him, tone too warm for this type of conversation. "Do not lose hope for them."

Light shook his head, refusing to think that this actually made sense. "You are sounding too much like a preacher, Mukahi-san. It does not suit you," he said, and was about to add a subtle insult when he was cut off by her placing her hand on his cheeks. He pushed away any sort of shyness and embarrassment and glee that surged inside him, and glared.

"Don't touch me." He stated but she did not let go. He didn't force her hand away, either.

"Those are dangerous thoughts, Light. You are a human being as well, please do not give up on it."

He turned away from her. "I'm not. I'm just stating the facts." And she frowned.

"Why do you act as if you're Kira?" She asked but before he can react, she smiled, catching him by surprise.

Did she—

"I know you're not him of course." She stated sternly and confidently as she looked at him straight to the eyes, making his crazily throbbing heart to stop. She then grinned as if she just said a very funny joke, while he just felt his gaze soften. He realized that he no longer had energy to show her anything else.

'Did she really mean that?' he asked himself in incredulity, and tried his best not to give anything away. If she did, how could she have so much faith in him when he already said so many things?

He did not understand this girl. Not at all…

Mukahi Lawliette was truly the only person he could not read. She was making him doubt his actions, too, despite being so sure of himself in the past…

But most importantly?

She was making him feel human again—despite the fact that he was aiming to be a god.

And that was definitely not a good thing.

...

NISPEDANA

Kira can control the time of death and has access to police information. He killed 46 people just to tell her that.

Lawliette had suspected for a while now that Kira had some sort of connection with the police force, as he had already found classified conclusions. She immediately asked Watari for the complete information on all of the officers involved in the case as well as their close relatives'.

She knew that this was a risky move – a move that Kira had obviously planned for her to take. But even if she knew this, as much as she didn't want to admit it—and despite not wanting to submit to what he wanted—she did not have any other choice. It pained her that she could not fully trust the people who believed her as an ally, but she had to deal with it for a while.

Then someone knocked at the door twice and upon her call, it opened, shedding a bit of light to her dark room. She narrowed her eyes, unable to immediately adjust to the light. Watari closed it immediately before asking how she was faring. She nodded and told him she was doing well.

Watari gave tall pile of paper about a meter tall. But unlike most people, she did not even wince. The plethora blueprints and plans she had been exposed to were much much more intimidating. She nonchalantly skimmed through it, and at the same time she dialled the phone to talk to the superintendent of the FBI. As she listened to the rings, her eyes met Watari's and he nodded in understanding. The old man then left the room and left her to the most comfortable setting she could ask for: A dark room with her laptop as the sole source of light.

It was like she was in the zone like that – during those times, her world was her laptop, and subsequently the cases and the people involved in them.

Soon the phone connected and she assumed a professional air once again, something that was getting easier every time. She opened her mouth to speak with the highest ranking officer in the FBI, someone she had developed a good professional relationship with during the past weeks. She had only solved 3 cases with them, but the old man seemed to have put quite a bit of trust in her already, despite the fact that she kept her identity secret from anyone. She did not want to take advantage of his power yet... but at the moment they were the only ones who could help her. After a few formalities, she finally jumped to the point.

"I'd like to confirm if the agents are here now in Japan?" she said, still particularly crept out by the computer-generated voice over the phone that night.

"Yes. Some of them should already be working, in fact."

"Oh? I'm impressed."

"Thank you and I hope we will be of great help in ending Kira's monstrosities."

"I'm sure you will. And thank you for your time." She said to the nice old man, and hung up.

But there it was again: her intuition nagging her that something ominous was about to happen.

She shook that feeling again, there was no use trying to abide by it. She had conditioned herself to the fact that there would be sacrifices no matter how hard she tried. But she could only do this because she believed that these people had taken the job because they wanted justice in the world– and were willing to risk their lives for it.

It was a hard thing to swallow, especially within just a few days. But Kira was too powerful – she couldn't afford to waver any longer. She had to accept the fact that it was beyond her abilities to keep everyone from dying.

But she was certainly going to do her best.

She let out a deep breath and placed the paper she had already finished reading to her side and grabbed another set. She skimmed and skimmed, remembering the basic details of each one.

Then she abruptly stopped with her hands shaking crazily and sweating buckets. She stopped at the superintendent's picture. She was surprised considering everyone called him chief, and she did too. She knew it was hard to trust someone like her who would not even dare show her face so she at least wanted them to feel that she was human, too… that they could relate to her.

She knew it was barely working but it was still worth a try.

She knew the chief's of his name, of course, but the chances that he was related to him were pretty slim. So she stared blankly at the paper and read its contents.

Yagami Suichiro.

Yagami.

She looked at the list of relatives and there he was—Son: Yagami Light.

She chuckled awkwardly.

What were the chances? Poor Light, circumstances seemed to be forcing her to suspect him.

But she wouldn't, of course. Light was her friend and she knew he was a good guy despite his huge ego, superiority complex, and a strong but might be misplaced sense of justice. But he would not actually take a life.

Indeed. Despite everything, Lawliette believed in Light.