It always annoyed me how easily Raito manipulated Rem, his is a smart little wanker but Rem is a freaking Death God!, so this story is about a Death Note universe were Rem was just a little smarter, and Raito got just a little screwed.

This was my first attempt at writing a story of decent length for anything, and even though it has been quite a trip all around I think I am rather happy with it and just all around glad that I kept my word about finishing it…..even if it did take me 3 years.

I wrote most of this fic about two years ago now, and then a constant stream of shit started to go wrong in my life, and by the time it leveled out even a little I was no longer reading much death note fan fic and had a very hard time trying to get inspired again.

By the time I did it I couldn't remember a whole lot about the story so far, I ended up changing a lot of little bits and pieces all over the place so it ended up being easier to just delete the old story and repost an entirely new version.

I had intended to try and turn the end of this fic into slash, but it has been too long and I found it hard enough to finish as it was.

Musical Chairs:

Chapter 1

'I'LL FORFEIT THEM!' Ratio shouted loudly at the surveillance camera, one last gleam of triumph could be seen in his eyes before simple bewilderment at his predicament took its place.

He thinks his won already, Rem smirked that boy with all his brilliance was still just a boy, 17 years could not out smart or even try to match her millennia. It was amusing that he had thought he could for even a second, and now it was all gone and he would not be getting it back. Not his memories, not his Death note and certainly not his Utopia.

Misa's insane search for her 'savior' had been misguided to say the least, Ratio saw Misa as only a tool. Rem had seen the boys eyes gleam as he learnt what the young trusting and foolhardy girl had to offer. How to kill a death god, Rem would not going to be made a fool of by a mere mortal, there would be no means to the end for Ratio, to put it eloquently he was screwed. Rem had to protect her own.

'You are right Ryuk, humans are amusing', she muttered to herself as she gazed after Ryuk as he flew towards the Tokyo market district at a frantic speed through the northern side of the building, not even caring about the path through the mist his flight was marking against the early morning sky.

Rem let herself drift vertically through the floor from her perch atop the mightily L's headquarters, she landed lightly by Misa's side. 'Don't worry you won't even know that I'm gone'.

She had work to do now, Ratio's case would not necessarily prove enough evidence to convict him with the death sentence as Kira, but Misa had been sloppy the main thing stopping her from a conviction was the sheer puzzlement over Kira's killing method, a notebook was certainly the last object one would think of in this plane of existence to cause such devastation.

Ratio's plan was not an option, it would leave her dead and Misa with only a quarter of her once full life remaining, besides she wasn't breaking any rules she was just killing people.

The change in the boy was sudden unexpected and.......interesting. It was like an altogether new suspect was gazing wearily at the far wall from within his monitor, even Matsuda noticed the changes. Normally such a change could be simply attributed to the shock of such drastic environmental change but this was the Kira case and it was anything but ordinary, L could not rule out any options, though he really had hoped he could take possession out of his musings.

This was to out of the ordinary, Amane had gone from screaming at them to kill her to being 100% certain that she had been kidnapped by 'Mr. Stalker', she was an actor but the personality change only raised her possibility of being Kira so really there was no point. Ratio's change to was just to pointless to be an act, all he was doing was damaging his pride.

Next to the security monitors his laptop hummed with life, looking away from Ratio and Amane he went back to searching for any new evidence of Kira activity over the last week. Nothing had changed, L put his finger on Watari's calls button and asked for his morning tea to be brought in, returning his thoughts to the strange boy in the cell, his other prisoners being far less intriguing as the chief had not moved for 4 hours and Misa was currently under the impression that 'Mr. Stalker' had kidnapped her to exploit her in through pornography. If they were Kira's Ratio was clearly the brains.

'Ratio-kun why such a drastic change in heart, you had appeared to me the sort of person to over think things so not to end up in an undesirable predigement, like your current one'

Ratio scowled up at the security camera 'My shortcomings are none of you concern!'

So he now thinks of this as a mistake, and a week ago he was so certain to.

'Forgive me for saying so Ratio-kun but I believe they are of my concern if they include the mass murder of thousands of people.'

L smirked at the look of mirth that overcame Ratios face, so it appears that some things never change Ratio-kun. In an unconscious response Ratio kicked out at his cell wall before slumping back onto the bed in his usual manner.

Why had he done this? what the hell had been going through his head!. Ryuuzaki was right, it was such a drastic decision and he knew better than anyone that Ratio Yagami did not make drastic decisions unless strictly necessary. Ratio sighed his foot throbbed dully from when he had kicked the wall. Damn Ryuuzaki and his accusations! well Ratio knew he was innocent, and for now at least that was all that mattered.

Even so it was going to be a long punishment, L thought he was Kira and wanted him to be Kira, the man's personal conviction was so strong Ratio thought it quite possible that his own doubts were largely to blame on the strange detective, there was not much else that could explain it.

As for Misa his so called 'girlfriend' he could not put his finger on why he would return that obsessed girls affections, but then again she was a popular actor and model and it would certainly not be the first time he had dated someone merely for his social image, not that his was in need of improvement at all of course.

Day 10

'Ryuuzaki, have you seen the papers!' L glanced up at Matsuda, tearing his attention from his carefully stacked pile of sugar cubes.

'Are you excited about the Olympic results, or are you referring to the new Kira case leads?'

Matsuda looked puzzled for a second before stuttering hesitantly, 'um the Kira case...err....boss?'

L swiveled his chair back around to face the monitors, his 2 suspects were exactly the same as last time he had checked. Why had Kira chosen this time to reappear? it did nothing except point toward Ratio and Amane's innocence, if the 2 prisoners turned out to have no relation to the Kira murdering then it would not be desired by the 'real' Kira who could easily 'set them up' as Ratio had put it.

The cases only suspects were locked up and he would of thought it impossible to deliver Kira's 'justice' from their cells, and this had to be at least partly true as many of the new victims had been convicted after Ratio's imprisonment had started.

This however left 2 main options, either Ratio and Amane were able to setup events to secure their innocence before being detained, or Kira was unaware of the existence of the suspects so had not thought to exploit there position. Another option of course was that a 3rd Kira had begun judgment.

All the speculation caused by the supernatural elements of the case were a tiresome issue to him. L did not guess, he collected and found the evidence to convict the criminal. Kira was a puzzle that defied logic and left no evidence at all, unless on purpose, in mockery or if one was as dull as Amane-san it would seem.

'Without knowing what Kira's method of killing is I can draw no logical conclusion and speculation is for fools.'

Mogi glanced up from his mountain of files and coffee mugs, 'What was that Ryuuzaki?'

'.......Team meeting in 10 minutes' L pronounced loud enough for the others to hear before getting up from his awkward position and stalking out of the main investigation room leaving Watari to watch his suspects doing nothing.

L walked in his slumped fashion up to the elevator and traveled to the top story. From the roof of his building L could watch the city life and mannerisms of the human species, it was a place for thinking were he could be close to the world without having to be part of it.

He took one last look over the city of noise and metal before starting back down to the lemon meringue pie he had gotten Watari to order for him from the French baker on Piker St. Plus he had to change the direction of his teams research due to the possibility of a 3rd Kira, L speculated this to be the most likely solution to the new development in his case.

'As you all should of noticed by now Kira has returned, we will once again have to collect information on the conditions of all the Kira murders to discover if the recent killings are the work of the 1st or 2nd Kira, I suspect that since there is a high chance we have both of those retained already we will discover the work of a 3rd Kira.'

At this final statement the team gasped, 'But Ryuuzaki!' Matsuda gasped 'You can't still think that Ratio and Misa are guilty after the killings have started again!'

'.........I assure you I can and do.'

'Will you at least tell them?' he asked.

'And why should I do a thing like that Matsuda?'

'Well it will put their minds at ease knowing were out there looking for the real Kira.....'

'I cannot stop you from informing the Chief but I must insist that Ratio-kun and Amane-san are not informed of these developments.............besides if there innocent they don't need the confirmation.'

'Ryuuzaki's right' added Mogi, 'By telling them that Kira killings have started again any pressure or dread would decrease on their parts if they are guilty, we can't disregard all the past evidence because a new lead has come up.'

'Thank you Mogi-san, now shall I talk to the Chief?'

8888888888888888888888

Day 32

L sat atop his swivel chair staring dully into the security feed of Ratio's cell. He had been certain Ratio was Kira, extremely so, but now? He just didn't know and this unsettled him, he was L he liked and usually did know. He was still extremely certain that the Kira killings were being done by a 3rd Kira, but the rest of the team was against this theory, they thought he was just being sour over a failure.

The 3rd Kira was systematically removing criminals from all different countries for a vast assortment of crimes, very similar to the 1st Kira, really L's main reason for suspecting a 3rd Kira's involvement along with his continued faith in Ratio's guiltiness was the lack of fight.

The 1st Kira had been power hungry, they had thought of themselves as a God, with power and the right to cast judgment to an entire species. As God of his 'new' world Kira needed to eliminate L, he was childish and had enjoyed taunting L with messages and display's of his power. The 3rd Kira did nothing of this sort, needless to say 'This Kira doesn't seem to hate me as much.' was not a good enough excuse for the team to validate his theories.

One other factor for L was the unsettling increscent of 'on the spot' judgment, Kira was killing an increasing amount of criminals during their crimes, something that would be hard to do on a world scale even for Kira because of lack of information. This indicated Kira was taking a more hands on approach, and possible moving around.

'....Maybe its time to leave Japan?' L muttered to the darkness, 'Then again there would be no point, might as well stay at the source of Kira. If his human he'll come back.'

Well L hoped so anyway, after all there were some people out there that lacked personal attachments and family ties, like himself whose home was his hotel and any ties were nothing more than a weapon and past.

Rem smiled grimly as she scrawled the name of the unsightly being before her into her not. 'Such a waste, his going to die soon anyway.'

This was necessary, vital even. Misa deserved all her remaining years, Ratio's way would of been easier for me she thought, if only he hadn't been such a manipulative power hungry mortal!

'Oh well', at least after this I'll have so many names I won't have to return to this plane for a millennia she thought, quickly scrawling down the already dead prisoners cellmate to before drifting through the heavy stone wall to the outside courtyard.

'I think I'll go home and check if L has let my Misa out of that unsightly contraption yet', with a ghastly grin worthy of Ryuk Rem flew east back to her weakness.

Day 38

He wasn't Kira, Ratio Yagami was not Kira, there was no way he could be Kira, it would be an illogical conclusion that he was Kira.....because Kira was not him!

He wouldn't even be Kira if he could...would he? But that didn't matter because he WAS NOT KIRA!

'Ryuuzaki, you have to understand that I'm not Kira.......please let me out and we can catch Kira together'

'You know I can't do that Kira'

Ratio shuddered slightly at L's choice of words, he couldn't believe that the killings had just so completely and abruptly stopped, he was being framed by Kira, it was the only logical explanation after all.

I called this story 'Musical chairs' because of how Death Note fan fics often draw the comparison of playing chess with L and Kira's battles of wits. Since this is a story about Rem and Ryuk putting the boys in their place it seemed to me a very one sided battle. I just have the picture in my head of Ryuk fucking around with a volume dial.