cIt was all coincidental.
A smart and ambitious man married an average though kind woman, and nineteen years later their little boy went on a world wide killing spree.
A boy named Light gets a new sister to watch over and a man named Light kisses a girl for the sake of controlling her.
Light-kun spends all of his time studying instead of making friends. Kira-sama desires for the death of his kingdom's citizens.
The Yagami family loses their third dog in a year with no clues as to it's whereabouts, and a genius' eyes stare gloatingly into the fading light of his only friend's.
Nothing had anything to do with anything.
Things just happened.
It wasn't his fault.
~*~*~
Sachiko was worried about him.
Light knew this and he didn't like it. Certainly she was proud to see him skip three grades in elementary school, she had told him so herself, but there was a light of unease in her eyes whenever he spoke to her freely.
His mother was worried that he was strange, that there was something wrong with him that he didn't have friends.
All Light wanted to do was read, but her nervously shining eyes made him worry about himself too.
It should be simple enough to ease her troubles. He could make friends, play like other eight year olds, talk in simple language. None of these things were impossible, but for some reason Light could never bring himself to do them for her. Was he an ungrateful son, a spoiled child to not cause himself a minimal amount of discomfort for her peace of mind?
Light thought that he must be.
He wasn't normal.
But shouldn't that be a good thing?
~*~*~
The assignment was as simple as they ever were.
Light wished that he would be allowed to move another level up, to find a true challenge, but his mother and councilors all insisted that he stay close to his own age group. Supposedly this would healthier for him, giving him the opportunity to speak freely with his peers.
But what chances were there for him? He was nine years old in a class filled with thirteen year olds, all of which were too busy looking foreword to high school to play house with the quiet, staring kid. He had made some courtesy attempts to speak with them but they didn't seem to operate on the same wavelength.
As proven by this assignment.
They had been paired into groups of four to create an imaginary fortress designed to ward off an attack from enemies on horseback. It was to be as impenetrable as possible, but in a realistic (simplistic) way. This was of course a branching off of the lessons they had learned for the past week about medieval warfare and buildings. Sickeningly bored, Light had zoned out the moment he'd pushed his desk against a neighbors, willing to let them do the low-level work and to let his mind wander.
Unfortunately though, it seemed as though letting them do the work would result in a failing grade.
"We gotta cut down all of the trees in the area! That way our bow-and-arrow guys could shoot anybody that they saw running up!" a long-limbed boy was busily drawing an indecipherable sketch on the back of his notebook, seemingly incredibly excited about his idea.
"Yeah, yeah! Make sure everything is smooth right? Then the people won't be zigzagging around and making the arrows miss!" a slightly chubby boy nodded eagerly, hanging over his friend's shoulder, pointing out places in the drawing to put weapons.
"Maybe we could even have, like, alligators? Or no, a stream! So that the people's horses can't carry them and they have to leave?" the girl of the group was annoyingly inconsistent, never sticking to any one opinion, including her own. Whoever was talking was right.
Light stared at them with open disgust, but thankfully they didn't pay him any attention. How could these simple idiots be four years older then him? How was it that they could go on to high school next year with such faulty logic? He wouldn't let Masuoka-sensei, the only person that talked with him and happily gave him high school-level work, think he was stupid.
"That wouldn't work." He mentally cursed the feminine tenor to his voice, wishing for the hundredth time that he could hit puberty early and fit in a little better.
The three teenagers turned to look at him in surprise, none of which having ever spoken with him before (or for that matter, heard him speak). "What wont?"
"Any of it. All of it." Light tried to keep his face looking innocent, not wanting to insult his group more than was necessary. His eyes stayed widely innocent and his lips played up a tiny smile, the same expression he used when assuring his mother that he was normal. "Having the entire surrounding area clear is completely antithetical; it only gives the enemies a clear and open path with a good view of our archers. And a stream? A stream would hardly stop a group that intends to kill us."
His class mates shifted between glaring at him to giving each other wide eyed looks, as though unsure of what their reaction should be. "..Why should we listen to a little kid? Yer gonna get us a failing grade!"
"You should listen to me because my marks are perfect. I have never failed before and I don't intend to fail now because of you." Judging from the two boys' expressions, this was not been the kindest way to phrase it. But then again, they had asked.
"What do you th-, uh, suggest we do, if you're so smart?" said random girl number three.
Light's gaze flicked briefly to Masuoka-sensei, who was across the room helping another student, mentally steeling himself to live up to the man's expectations.
"It should be in a forest, a very densely wooded one." He began, his hands coming up unconsciously to help him describe the scene. "Every fifth tree we should cut down and into several pieces, this way the forest floor will be adequately covered, creating a sort of deathtrap for the horses.
"When they gallop into the forest and start to hit these 'roadblocks', the horses will trip and fall, breaking their own legs and occasionally falling atop their riders." His hands made a sort of snapping motion, suggesting broken spines or maybe legs. "By the time the people reach our fortress, if there are enough of them unharmed for them to have any sort of morale left, they will be easy to pick off at the base of the fortress. After all, they would likely not have any weapons left; they would all be broken or battered back with their horses."
His group stared at him in a mix of awe and disgust. He had made perfect sense, had he made a grammatical error?
"Wow, that's like.. so evil!" squeaked the girl, her eyes big and dull as a cows.
"That.. I guess… it could work." The skinny boy's body language was withdrawn, shoulders forward and spine hunched. He wasn't happy with Light at all, but he wasn't certain why.
"Whoa, for a little kid you think up ways to kill people really good!" The chubby boy, unlike the others, seemed almost excited. "Im glad you're on my team!"
The older students began to put together a poster with varying levels of enthusiasm. Light left them to it, turning a blank gaze to the far wall.
He was good at thinking up ways of killing people.
He already knew that.
Was it something to be so surprised about?
~*~*~
The Tanaka family's dog was barking again.
Light squeezed his eyes shut, burying his face into his pillow.
He hated that dog. An ugly white Papillion, it had scratched Sayu on her walk the other day, frightening her half to death. The Tanaka family left every Friday night for business, and every Friday night that stupid dog would bark and bark and bark.
Most nights the constant noise would start a fight between his parents. Light had heard them often enough to know exactly how it would play out. Father would complain, Mother would reassure him and he would snap at her irritably. It would escalate until eventually Mother would start to sob and their door would slam. In the morning father would on the couch, in the sound proof living room.
"That fucking dog again!"
"She misses her family, honey, she doesn't know any better."
"I work to support you three, I need my sleep!"
There it went.
Light tried futilely to bury his head in the pillow, but it did him no good. As though he had scripted it himself, the fight went on and on, Light predicting every response down to volume of the shouts.
Light hated dogs.
With a sigh, he sat up in his bed, kicking the blankets off of his legs. He made his way to the window, looking over to the next house. Just as expected, that Papillion was jumping around in the kitchen, making enough noise that surely the same fight was playing out all across the neighborhood.
He slid the window open, carefully easing out of it and onto the ground below. His small foot hit cold earth and he cringed, disliking the feeling of dirt between his toes, but he put the other foot down anyways. After dedicating a moment to stillness, getting used to the dirt and the cool night air, Light padded quickly and confidently across the small yard to the Tanaka's doorway.
After only a brief search, he lifted the spare key out of the potted plant beside the door and let himself in. The Papillion was losing its mind on the other side of the house, apparently unable to come to the door. He navigated the unfamiliar house with ease, finding the dog throwing itself bodily against a gate set up in the doorway, trying desperately to greet its owners.
There was an eerie moment of stillness as boy and dog saw each other, each out of place and alone, before the noise kicked up, twice as awful as before.
Yap Yap Yap Yap
Light closed his eyes, trying to block out some of the sound. It felt like there were tiny claws in his head, scratching at his brain with every sound. He couldn't take it, no one should have to listen to that!
Using reflexes he didn't know he had, Light reached out his hands, perfectly plucking the dog from the air by its throat. His fingers dug into its neck, squeezing as tightly as he could, determined to end that stupid barking!
The dog thrashed in his hands like a snake, scratching and gurgling. It's surprisingly heavy body spun and kicked off of his wrists and stomach, anything it could reach, leaving many burning scratches on his pale flesh. He ignored them all, each small pain making him more determined to quiet the creature forever.
He eventually wrestled it to the ground, pinning it to the floor with his whole body, his small hands never easing their grip on its windpipe. Its struggles steadily declined, the kicks weaker, gurgles less and less frequent, until finally it gave up any sort of fight.
Light lay atop it for a minute after it stopped, not wanting to risk it biting him when he let it go, before finally he sat up. He looked over his hands and arms, making certain that the scratches weren't serious. He noticed a crease in his palm and reached into the dog's pure white fur, spinning a pink collar around and pulling the tag towards him. The dog's body swayed lifelessly towards him by the neck, Light carelessly pushing it back as he looked the tag over.
" Antoinette? That's a stupid name for a dog." He pulled a face, sticking his tongue out at her. She seemed to be sticking hers out as well, though it was strange purple colour instead of a healthy pink. He released the collar, letting her slump to the floor and stood up. He deposited the dog back on her side of the gate and walked out, making certain to lock the door behind him, in case of burglars. He didn't want to accidently cause the Tanakas to be robbed.
The trip back to his room was uneventful, and he brushed the dirt off of his feet before he climbed back through the window. He could hear his parents' quiet murmuring through the wall, but couldn't make out the words. From the tone, though, he could say that they seemed to have made up.
With a relieved sigh he crawled back into the bed, eyes closing gently, and within minutes he was out like a light.
~*~*~
Light walked in the kitchen two Saturdays later, hoping to find his mother finished with lunch, but instead found her to be on the phone. This always made her slower, but he did not complain, simply pulling out a chair at the table and sitting down patiently. Sayu made faces at him from her chair and he made them right back at her.
"Oh Mom, you know how he is, what with how busy he gets at work." Sachiko said while carving apple slices into bunny shapes for her children. "No no, everything is fine. You know how I told you that dog was keeping us awake..? Well apparently it had a heart attack last weekend. Yes yes, it was so wound up anyways, but Ms. Tanaka says that there were dirty footprints in the hallway. She didn't find anything missing, but she thinks someone must have broken in on Friday and scared the dog half to death! Or well, I suppose completely to death. Poor thing."
Sachiko looked away from the snacks and to her children, slightly taken aback as she watched her son make a horrible face. His eyes bugged out of his skull and his tongue lolling, she felt her heart skip a beat. Sayu made a whining noise, calling him ugly, but Light smiled charmingly at her, a beautiful son once again.
Without conscious thought, her eyes sought out the little scratches across her son's arms. She had noticed days earlier and taken them for an average little boy's rough-housing. Even now, she wasn't certain why she noticed them, why they felt important.
When Light looked up from Sayu to his mother, she gave him her brightest smile, holding up an apple slice. "I have Bunnies for my boy!" she chirped, making one hop around in the air. Sayu cheered as she received hers while Light rolled his eyes at the silliness. "Eat up, you want to be big and strong like your Father don't you?"
Light made a noncommittal noise, biting an apple-bunny in half.
There was that feeling of unease again, that feeling that came upon her so often. She disliked being uncomfortable around her son. After everything, despite his quirks, she was lucky to have such a brilliant child. He was any mother's dream, an angel.
Sachikos poor, fragile little angel.
She hoped that he would come out of his shell soon and spread his wings for the world to see. When he did, he would lead the world to a better place. Somehow she had always known that he was born to heal this broken world. One day the world would see his pure white wings…
…and she would see them as well.
~*~*~
I wish I was a better writer.
Review if you like it, please, or just favourite… Actually, just reading it is good enough, thank you!
The ending feels abrupt, but I can't seem to finish it to my liking…