CHAPTER 8: CAMERAS

It was just another weekday. Which, unfortunately, meant that she had to go to school…

But Lawliette did not want to go to school. She had not slept for almost four days straight watching all those surveillance footages with the FBI agents. She could feel her head twirl and twirl around…

"You didn't sleep, Ryuzaki?" Matsuda asked worriedly. She had let take turns to sleep for a few hours, but it seemed it was too obvious that she didn't take part of it. What could she do? She could not put what those agents died for in vain aside, there was simply no time to sleep. The others felt the same too, but they were normal human beings…

But then, a time later, they suddenly got a call from Aizawa, who she sent back to the headquarters, telling them that Rey Penbar's fiancé had information. It was sent two days ago, and she made a mental note to improve the coordination system, especially now that there was naturally a rift between her team and the other police officers.

"He said her name was Misora Naomi," Watari said and her eyebrows furrowed the moment she heard the name.

Misora Naomi.

Lawliette asked Watari to go and search her name despite being certain how she knew the woman—just in case. It was a bit awkward to treat your own adoptive father as your assistant, but in a sense it was true. And she watched BB do that every time to the point that she could naturally do so again.

She looked at the photo and confirmed it was her. She ate the newly-delivered strawberry cake, the one that Watari brought back with him, as she mused. So Ray Penbar was the fiancé that she was talking about? Small world.

"I just saw her two days ago, though." L said almost nonchalantly, if only there wasn't a heavy and nagging feeling at the pit of her stomach. Knowing her, she would've persevered until she got to talk to someone. So where was she these two days.

Her suspicions were justified a moment later. "She had been reported missing by her family for the past few days."

"What?"

She bit her nail, a habit when she was thinking and was nervous about it. Ray Penbar was Naomi Misora's fiancé. That would also mean she must have been with Penbar, and may have figured something out. Kira had just got to her first.

No—she got to her first, but she was too preoccupied with the FBI agents that he did not bother speaking to Misora Naomi in length when she got the chance. If only she had known she was related to Penbar…

Damn

Damn it all.

She willed herself to calm down. I cannot keep blaming myself, she thought. It was unproductive. She could go make amends later… and with Naomi's case, it was to bring Kira to justice.

Hence, with the new premise, she decided to narrow the search to the two families that Penbar investigated. It was their only lead. But as she rummaged her brain precisely what families he investigated, Lawliette felt a heavy thump on her gut. She did not like it…, she did not like it at all. She frowned deeply before turning to her allies.

Chief Yagami's family would be one of them.

"Buchou…" Matsuda voiced out in worry while the other's expression stated that they felt the same way. It was one of the worst situations a policeman could understood that… but even if there was less than 5% chance that one of them was Kira… she would not hold back. Thankfully, the chief stood by the same thing.

Lawliette watched the man with worried eyes. She knew he'd do anything for what is good, but the strain on his was so obvious that he even snapped at his team—something he never did, no matter how stressful the cases got. Indeed, something like this: your own family, and in her case, friends being suspected to be that inhumane maniac… no one would keep calm.

But instead of avoiding this challenge, they would go through it head on – with full force. And when she was determined to go full force, there was really no holding back.

Otherwise?

There would be no use doing it.

...

TODAI

Lawliette seriously wanted to skip classes, but she had already ignored more than enough classes. Dropping out on this meant that she also dropped the reason why she came to Japan in the first place. Besides, Watari added that she would need to be around normal things – do things her age did— so to keep her sanity. A lot of things had been thrown at her too harshly and too quickly that it worried both of them.

So there she was, trying her best not to fall down. No one noticed though, she had always appeared groggy and her eyebags had been there for weeks on end.

Indeed, she attended the classes… but only to sleep through them.

"…Mukahi-san…" the teacher called asking something beforehand. She stared and so did everyone else. She shifted her gaze to the board which had a math problem. L didn't hear what he wanted her to do was, so she could only just go ahead and solve the whole thing.

Little murmurs here and there were heard. And they stared at her all the way until she returned to her seat. Apparently, the professor just asked for the formula.

Lawliette only shrugged.

...

During their lunch under the usual Sakura tree, Lawliette had finally earned enough energy not to sleep. But watching Takada and Rokko's prying and worried questions, a part of her certainly wished she hadn't. "What are you doing sacrificing so many hours of sleep?" Rokko asked anxiously pointing at her eyebags, almost touching it.

"This and that." She answered lethargically and Rokko poked it gently to make his point. Lawliette didn't flinch, and just sighed in slight exasperation. Then she recalled the little scene just after the class.

"What about you then, Rokko-san? You appeared flustered yourself, especially after the phone call you received at the start of the break." She asked, changing the topic.

"I don't know, not really. It's about my uncle." He shrugged. "Mother was worried about him. He hadn't come home to his house for two days straight now... and when they called he always answered idiotic replies… more than usual. And that's saying something." Rokko muttered staring into the sky, probably remembering all the stupid things his uncle did.

Takada shook her head at Rokko's failure and proceeded into interrogating Lawliette. It was time to use her Mass Communication education to the test.

"Now… back to the topic at hand…" She smiled congenially. "Did you get yourself a boyfriend, Lawliette?"

"*cough* wha- *cough*" he composed himself by swallowing air. "O-Oi!"

Takada felt like someone from TMZ. And as always, Lawliette and Light remained (somewhat) cool while Rokko overreacted. Lawliette eventually gave a calm smiled, and Takada was led to think she might not even know what the connection was. Really, there were some things even geniuses couldn't comprehend.

"I assure you I have nothing of the sort."

Takada decided to make sure of it anyway. TMZ style.

"Lawliette, a boyfriend is someone you see as more than a friend. You do things you can't do to your friends – although things have changed a bit nowadays – like kissing, and you want to be with this person most."

Rokko raised an eyebrow and was about to ask where that came from, but then for just that instant he saw it. Lawliette and Light – they looked at each other and freaking blushed. Even Takada, despite the fact that she was uncharacteristically fantasizing about something, noticed it too. They looked at each other, simultaneously assuming things.

But if by some chance – Rokko sure did hope not – that they were no longer j-just friends, then that didn't explain why she's so tired when he's as refreshed as ever. He didn't think they would have that kind of relationship, so why?

They were probably jumping to conclusions. Yes, they must have been.

But Takada seemed to have been way ahead of him with the interrogation. "In any case, you are bothered with something that I don't think has anything to do with your love life." Lawliette nodded at this and frankly, after some instantaneous reflection, Rokko felt that he really was the dumbest in the group.

Talk about painful to the ego.

But all those hits to his pride were blown away when he finally saw the change of emotion in Lawliette's eyes. A burst of sadness, so to speak, and his hand moved by itself to hold hers. She smiled, and he did too as he saw her slowly get over a feeling that must have been recurring inside her countless of times.

"Another friend of mine just died." She finally uttered and he gripped her slightly tighter while Kiyomi apologized.

"Oh." Takada looked down, slightly ashamed of prying. "I'm sorry… for asking."

"It's fine." Lawliette answered dismissively and took a strawberry cake. "Here. Have some dessert."

Silence passed by as everyone waited for Rokko to take the cake. Mentally, he panicked. Not only did he have relatively no skills in directing an intellectual conversation; he was basically the one causing the tension! So much for being the most popular guy in High School...

Slowly, Rokko gestured to take a cake. But the Takada seemed to have remembered something.

"Uhm. But before that." Takada paused and held up a camera; Rokko recalled she was waiting for a chance for quite some time. "I bought a latest model. I want to take a picture of us!"

Lawliette tilted her head. "Why?"

"To preserve memories. To capture moments in time~"

"Ahh." Lawliette nodded in understanding and stared at the camera. "You know… when we get famous, I think these pictures would be worth a lot of money…" She recalled seeing baby pictures of famous Hollywood actors a few years back. Alluka had a knack for collecting them.

Takada sweated dropped at that, while the guys only stared. "Lawliette…"

"HAHAHA! It's true though." Rokko exclaimed, while Light remained impassive. Light was simply in a much worse mood than this morning. Rokko could not take the hint though and grabbed his shoulders and pulled him in the group. "Come on, now!"

"Smile~!"

Click!

Takada would make sure they'd all have a copy each.

...

Once again, Light and Lawliette were left on their own. Rokko had seriously considered cutting class to stop it from happening, but he couldn't think of a decent excuse to do so in practice.

Light, not appreciating to be left alone with this woman, stood up and excused himself as well. He was stopped by the feeling of cold hands on his arm, halting his movements. "Stay," She ordered and he frowned, even if he was doing just that.

Knowing it would seem too suspicious to force his leave, he sighed in defeat. He stared at her as he sat back down. It was not difficult to say something. "You seemed bothered," he uttered, not needing to fake a concerned voice. "Is it about the friends who died?"

"Yes," she paused.

"How did they die?"

"Kira killed them."

His breathe stopped and he whipped his head to face her. She was not looking at him, rather she was staring blankly at the sky, no doubt thinking of the people who had died. He had killed too many people that he did not think of who she was referring to, at least not yet.

Their debate about justice rang through his head, and images of her tired and depressed states plagued his thoughts. And then he remembered that day when she cried her heart out, clinging to him like a lifeline, and it was still so surprisingly vivid that it caught him off-guard.

For the first time, he doubted his goals.

But it did not last—he forced himself to snap out of it—and a second later he was certain he was on the correct path.

They remained silent for a while, him fully realizing that at this point it was impossible to make her understand his own logic and way of thinking. She hated Kira, and he realized the amount of pain he had caused her.

He would never admit that, he too, was in pain, simply because he did not truly realize it himself.

"I can't imagine what it would've been like if I got that call when I was alone," she told him, pulling him out of his reverie. She turned to him with a bright appreciative smile that rendered him frozen. "It has been years since the last time I cried in front of anyone, let alone within anyone's embrace,

"You were very warm, Light," she said, smiling.

"Thank you."

...

YAGAMI RESIDENCE

Light came home and found that the house was locked and wondered why nobody was home, it was unusual. He rummaged his bag for his spare keys, but as he did so, unfortunately, he remembered their conversation earlier.

Such a weak girl, he thought as he caught himself, the fact that he was the cause of her pain nonwithstanding. People die, they did every day. If one friend/acquaintance was lost then she just ought to find another one, no? It wasn't that he didn't value human life, he just didn't see what was the big issue of them dying. Well, of course, minus what he was doing. Killing evil is meaningful in itself, after all.

But he mused that he was not that different. He was still human, albeit losing his humanity in due time. Perhaps that small thump on his chest, when he saw her sad—and consequently every time he remembered her sobbing face—was because of that.

"You were very warm, Light-kun."

Light forced the thoughts out of his head, and much faster than before. He had become better at dismissing those disturbing thoughts of her – a subtle sign that he was really getting closer and closer to becoming a god. Even she shouldn't be able keep him away from his goal for whatever reason she could do that in the first place, after all.

He nonchalantly went up his room, and reached his door to find very disconcerting changes. His door knob – which wasn't supposed to be turned all the way up – was at its maximum height. He automatically tilted his eyes down and saw the paper was still there. And then he shifted to the other side of the door and he frowned instantaneously. Very deeply.

The lead, another trap he set up, was broken.

Someone had been into his room.

He frowned. Someone would be in deep trouble.

...

Later that day, Lawliette arrived to their temporary headquarters dressed with the same set of clothing as before - BB's attire, only with a white shirt. "Ohayo, minna." She uttered as if it really was morning. But considering the hours they worked, nobody cared.

"'Hayou…"

"Have you taken enough sleep?" She asked Matsuda and the chief who were the only ones there at the moment. They were allowed to go home or at the office and it seemed these two did neither.

"Hai."

"Matsuda-san." She said, looking at his eyes. She was sure why it seemed so familiar, now... it explained a few mysteries in the past like that phone call in Space Land and the feeling of familiarity when she saw Matsuda. And she smiled at him out-of-nowhere, making him flinch. "Your sister is worried about you."

He flinched further, blinked, and stared at her in puzzlement before his expression turned that of surprise. He gulped and quickly ran outside with his phone. "E-Excuse me."

"Take your time." She smiled lightly at the fact that the world really is such a small place, but considering what happened to Misora… she knew it was not always a good thing. She then turned to the chief and asked politely, "What about you, Buchou?"

"I called them. I don't think I should go home looking like this." He answered scoffing in slight amusement, stretching his arms as if his disgruntled state was something to behold. Lawliette smiled.

"Thank you for your hard work."

"Likewise." He nodded with a smile and followed her to the living room where they had already set up the cameras. Soon enough the others arrived and she assigned them to the other family for courtesy. Only she and the chief would be watching the Yagami family.

Ironic, really. They were the ones who wanted to avoid doing that the most.

...

During the hours they had watched the family intently, she saw that there was something odd about how Light was acting: he was too natural. And her intuition was telling her he's suspicious – and with current circumstances wherein they didn't have much of a lead, she could not afford to ignore it. She frowned. There was no way he was Kira, so he must be suspicious for something else entirely… right?

Right—and that was what she was going to find out. She would stand by that proving that. Unconsciously she held the hem of her shirt, imagining her scarf was there.

She swore to never doubt a friend ever again. And she could only pray this would stop soon.

...

The two continued watching, and for the duration of the whole thing her mentality had been full faith in Light—that he was not Kira. She looked at his father who had also barely had any sleep and was yet wide awake—alert to find alibis for his family, just like what she was trying to do despite no one knowing of it.

But then she flinched. He suddenly brought with him to the bed a set of unfamiliar magazines. She knew it was the magazine he bought earlier when he left the house.

She tilted her head in puzzlement.

What was he doing staring at those girls with almost no clothes?

"Light…" his father asked trying to mask the disappointment in his voice. She shifted her gaze back to Light, who was staring at women he didn't know for a relatively long amount time. This intrigued her since she noticed that he had been avoiding looking at her lately although only when he was off-guard. After all, he knew better than to be obvious and let her know he was avoiding her. But, she knew anyway.

In any case, a very vivid image of something popped up her head and blood rushed up her cheeks. She just recalled that short kiss she had with Light. It was clear that he said it was only to deal with his sister and his mother … but still—

She shook her head of the thoughts.

She returned to analyzing what was so interesting about such girls. Admittedly, she disliked him looking at them for such a long time but since she still wasn't sure as to why, it didn't take long for her to dismiss the irritable feeling inside her away.

Also, it was odd she saw a lot of girls, wear revealing clothes around campus and Light never did bother to look at them. It was unusual since when she overheard Takada asking Rokko something about when he was going to stop eyeing random girls, he simply said he couldn't because he was a 'guy'.

Well, Light was a guy, too...

Men are so complicated.

In any case, she watched him passively as he hid his magazines again and listened to his father mumble something about how he could not believe his straight-laced son would be into that stuff.

"What stuff?" She voiced out making the old man flinch. L only stared in anticipation.

Chief Yagami gulped, but ended up musing that considering how eccentric L was, he should not be surprised no matter what. So he answered as if he was talking to a 3 year old who could afford knowing these things already. "It's something normal 17-year old boys normally get interested in." He did not mean to be rude, but it was true – everyone knew Ryuzaki was far from ordinary.

"So why not let your son be normal, at least in a few aspects of his life?" She commented making the old man slightly look away in ponder. She looked at the monitor again, albeit she too was pondering.

Lawliette slowly recalled how… strained Light was. It must be hard to try acting so perfect all the time, and he could not blame him. Yagami Suichiro really was a great and honorable man – any son would want to make him proud. But she realized that, assuming Light really was into that stuff, then his father might have expected a little too much…

After a while of thinking, he looked back at her and mumbled a short sentence of agreement. She then returned her line of sight to the screen and watched him eat potato chips as he studied. It was weird… that simple scene felt like it had a complex cinematography inputted in it. She shrugged and passively watched him write with his right and eat with his left.

As she observed him, she started to wonder what happened to them and their relationship. The way they were now was so... different from when they first met—strained, even with those short moments of warmth that they shared. Everything it was blatantly obvious: Light tried his best to have nothing to do with her; He'd step back two paces every time she stepped forward. It felt like he was running away from her.

However… amongst all these uncertainties, Lawliette knew one thing:

That she really wanted to be close to him again…

...

A few hours had passed, Light was still studying and she found it odd. Did Light need to study so much? She definitely didn't. Perhaps he was used to over-killing it perhaps?

And then as if on cue, Watari came in with the news that criminals that were shown in the 9:00 news were killed by heart attacks. She felt an odd sense of relief that she had never felt before with regards to criminals dying.

But her smile quickly turned into a frown. Did she lose the feeling of sympathy towards the countless criminals that Kira had killed? Or was her relief that no one of her friends were watching television at the time, making their alibis spot-free.

And yet… it was still noteworthy that criminals died right after they appeared on television, even with such light crimes. It was as if he was desperate to prove that he was not one of the people they watched.

She just couldn't shake off the feeling of suspecting… Light. She clenched her fist. Just what kind of friend was she?

Besides, even if say… Kira need only imagine killing, there should still be some sort of facial expression – but there was none in any of them. So then Kira wasn't among them, right?

But her brain never did follow her will; it continued working. Somehow, she came to a point that if by some chance Kira was one of the Yagamis, then that would mean that Kira had already reached the level of a god.

She felt like cursing.

She needed to find better alibis.

A part of her wanted to believe that it really was divine retribution – if only Kira didn't need face and the name, then maybe she would have. She mentally pushed the thoughts away. She was thinking about it all wrong…

But would she really be able to suspect them? She had felt too attached to them already that it was almost out of the question. What should she do? This wasn't the first time she had been faced with such a dilemma and she wanted it to end. She was afraid this would turn out like the last time she suspected a friend.

But first she would temporarily relieve the chief of the tension.

"Please don't misunderstand me." She added as the chief celebrated prematurely at the advent that they're finally taking away the cameras. She stated that there was no suspicious activity was observed – she didn't mean that none of them were Kira. No matter how much she wished it.

Everyone became quiet to absorb everything that she had told them, and Lawliette watched them intently. They all looked so tired as well, they will need some rest.

Matsuda was obviously on the verge of crying. She could not blame him; she wanted to do the same. "What... do we do now?"

"I will do personal investigating for a while. You will have a few days to rest."

Everyone flinched. "What?"

She stood up and excused herself, stating a few assignments and said that she will go do something regarding the case as well. The rest went to their respective positions and some reread the piles of information that they had collected through the past few days.

"What will we—" Ukita was about to ask what to do when the chief asked, in all seriousness, why they would do that. To their confusion, L did not answer but only faced Matsuda in response.

"Matsuda-san." She called the youngest of the policemen, and was looking quite befuddled. "Are you tired?"

"Well, I'm not going to lie—"

"Just answer yes or no."

"H-Hai."

"You call me Ryuzaki."

"Hai."

"One plus one equals two."

"Hai."

"One times three is equals to six"

"Hai."

Silence

"It's sad, but our cognitive abilities are getting affected. Besides, you can always research and study what you can which is why I gave you a few assignments. You can go to the headquarters and maybe use the resources there in your own time. I have to do my investigation alone. It is something I would need full attention to. "

"You won't need our help?" Chief asked worriedly and she shook her head politely.

"No offense, but this is something only I could do." She finally stated and headed to the door with Watari. "See you in a few days."

And she left, putting aside the identity she borrowed in the closet for a while.

...

L and Watari left with the limo, and entered her hotel inconspicuously to change to her normal clothes. She hugged the scarf she was forced to let go and returned it to its rightful place on her neck. She passed by the mirror and paused to look at herself. Her hand clenched her scarf unconsciously.

She trusted Light – 'Light' wouldn't do those things - and she would not waver… she decided. She erased all doubts in her mind and looked at herself in the eyes.

She was not going to make the same mistake again—

No. She stopped herself.

She could not afford to think like this at all. She understood, after leaving the loyal police men like that, that she could not be so biased-no matter how hard it hurt. She already did her best in trying to get them some more alibis-to reduce the suspicion to zero... but her gut instincts always said otherwise.

And... she was in the middle of a war – leading one side… the side with the casualties and countless sacrifices. She needed to consider, in the least, that Kira could indeed be... Light.

It made sense. He was the only one under suspicion. He had the personality—the God complex, no doubt taking root at the fact that he was far superior to everyone around him his whole life.

And Light... was not Alluka. He was much stronger than her childhood friend ever was. Besides…

She could always apologize if she got it wrong.

She gulped, composed herself, and went on her way.

...

Yagami Light stretched his arms in relief as he went down the stairs one morning on his way to school. With the cameras and bugs gone, he was no longer a suspect. That and Ryuk could finally eat his apples again, officially stopping those disturbing withdrawals he was having.

His mother would be so surprised to see that fresh basket of apples suddenly empty.

Tap Tap

...tap

He paused. As soon as he stepped on the house threshold, his eyes immediately paused to the gate. A very familiar figure was there standing stiff. And he didn't know what to think or how to react for a moment, but he managed to catch his composure. As always.

"Good Morning, Light-kun." She made a slight greeting bow while he entered his nice-concerned-Light façade, which at the moment wasn't exactly a lie.

"Lawliette…? What's wrong?"

But instead of answering his question, she smiled. "Let's walk to school together."

Light agreed hiding his reluctance, and moments of silence overcame them for a few minutes as they walked. It was broken by Light and that fake smile of his.

"Is there something bothering you?" he asked nonchalantly noting a strange gesture of her thumb wiping her lower lip. Knowing her, it was probably just one of her mannerisms. And this one screamed nervous.

He felt worri—No, he stopped himself and his hand flinched reflexively making him glower at thin air in comprehension. Light was always good at reading people, there was no doubt about that. But empathizing with them?

God did not empathize, and he almost did just that. That would bring him on the same level as them.

"Light-kun…" she whispered as she stared at him in anxiety – as if she was fighting with something, and for some odd reason he unconsciously did not want to know what it was.

It was then when she stopped her tracks and he turned around. They were now in a relatively empty street, right next to a lamp post. She had her eyes closed as if concentrating, and she abruptly opened her eyes – revealing determination and glimmer he had never seen before.

His chest constricted.

"Light."

He flinched. "...hai?" He muttered pathetically, unable to look away.

Heck. He couldn't take his eyes off her, and she only stared back—albeit much more firmly.

"Light." She repeated, her tone gentler, and he didn't know what to make of it.

.

.

"I am. L."

____

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