Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or make any money from this fanfic.
After the second child in one week had been stung, Roger decided that perhaps it was time to remove the hornet nest from the oak tree on the far side of the garden. It was a shame, really; he had rather enjoyed watching the insects gather wood pulp from the fence posts and expand their papery nest. And watching the red and yellow marked workers catch flies and beetles had been entertaining as well. But he supposed, all good things had to come to an end eventually. And young children rarely co-existed peacefully with stinging insects, even a species as ordinarily non-aggressive as Vespa crabro.
Roger naturally suspected that the hornets had been provoked, and was proven correct only a few hours later as he sat on the porch inconspicuously observing the hornet nest. From his vantage point, Roger saw Beyond point at the nest and gesture for another student to follow him, approaching the nest with excitement and caution. Roger wondered how many times he had done this before.
When they were within twenty meters of the nest, Beyond stood next to A, chucked a few rocks at the nest, hitting one of the branches, close enough to jar the nest and disturb the insects. Beyond laughed and quickly ducked down, leaving A to receive the hornets' punishment. Roger frowned, stood up and moved to care for hornet sting incident number three. So, Beyond had figured out that the insects were capable of calculating the trajectory of moving objects and following said trajectory back to the source? Not surprising, but he would have to make sure that Beyond was occupied with something more constructive to fill his time in the future.
.
He had Beyond hold the torch close enough to illuminate the nest, but far away enough that the insects wouldn't see the light and leave their nest to investigate. He positioned the ladder firmly against the tree trunk, careful not to jostle any of the branches that supported the nest. He ascended the ladder until he was high enough to lean over and reach the nest opening from his position.
He sealed the nest opening with a cotton ball soaked in a mixture of pyrethrins, then waited a few minutes before carefully removing the intact nest and placing it in a plastic bag. He would freeze it later just to make sure all the hornets were really dead.
Beyond looked disappointed as Roger descended from the ladder. "You're done already?"
"Yes." Roger continued to carefully hold the bag, aware that there were a number of live hornets still humming their disapproval, only kept contained by their own papery nest and the plastic bag.
"Did you get stung?" Beyond asked hopefully.
"No. The hornets rarely fly at night, and by the time I blocked their nest entrance, it was too late for them to properly mount a defense."
Beyond's eyes glinted. "So you cheated. That wasn't very nice of you, Roger."
Something about how the boy said the phrase made shivers run down his spine.
Beyond matched his pace and looked down at the bag and up to Roger. "What would happen if you dropped the nest, Roger?"
Roger ignored the creepy tingling feeling he got from being around Beyond. The boy just needed something to keep him busy, that was all.
.
Against his better judgment, Roger decided to try and teach Beyond how to pin and preserve insect specimens. He had plenty of spare Vespa crabro workers after all.
Beyond poked a finger into the frozen nest and nudged one of the workers. "Can they still sting?" he asked.
"No," Roger anwered. "It's been too long since they've died and their venom has dried up and degraded."
Beyond looked disappointed. Roger preferred not to imagine what the boy must have been contemplating. Instead, he picked up a thawing worker and pressed a #2 pin firmly through the thorax. He inserted the fin into a piece of styrofoam, and used another pin to carefully position the insect's antennae, wings and legs. They were soft and pliable now, but would harden in place within a few days as the hornet dried.
Beyond watched, fascinated, then picked up a worker and started imitating Roger's actions.
"Do you ever do this to insects when they are still alive, Roger?"
"No. They would move and damage themselves." Roger noticed that Beyond was sticking numerous pins through the insect's head, thorax and abdomen. "You only need one pin to mount the insect, Beyond," he said sharply. "Too many and you'll end up with a specimen full of holes."
Beyond wasn't listening. He stuck a few more pins into the hornet's abdomen. Haemolymph oozed out. "It's more fun this way," Beyond whispered under his breath.
It was then that Roger decided that Beyond was not suited for entomological work. Personally, he didn't think Beyond was suited for any work that didn't involve constant supervision, but like many things at Whammy's House, the decision was not his to make. Instead he decided to see if he could foist the boy off onto another student, perhaps L.