Chapter 1
Freedom
Hey, everyone! Welcome to my newest story! I've been haunted by various plot bunnies for the past few months, and I have finally decided which one to write about! I chose this one because it has B and he is now one of my favorite characters. Also, there isn't enough stories with B. If you know who B is, than this will all make a lot more sense; if not, you might be confused at the beginning, but the important stuff is revealed by the end of this chapter. And you can always look it up on the internet and get a summary of the novel.
Disclaimer: The only thing I own in this story is the cake L seems so intent on getting. It's MINE! L can't have it!
I don't have a beta, so if anyone wants to offer, I'd appreciate it. If not, then I'll have one of my friends do it, but she doesn't have internet, so it'll take a while for me to get it to her.
--
"It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it."
-Karl Popper
"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose."
-Some old hippy song
--
"Hey, you! Get up! It's time for dinner!"
He sat there with his knees to his chest, staring absently up at the drab gray concrete ceiling. "Hmmm... No... I don't think so..." His eyes flickered to the man's face, or more accurately, his name, "Timothy Noll".
The jail guard's eyes narrowed at the odd man before him, wondering how the little freak knew his name. He had just started working here at the Los Angeles maximum-security prison, so the chances that he had heard someone saying the new guard's full name were slim at best. He brushed it off- it was creepy, but not seemingly dangerous.
"Not unless I get jam tonight, anyway."
The guard blinked, "...jam?"
"Or cake. Maybe some brownies. And tea with sugar."
Those large black eyes seemed to bore into his very soul. This guy... not even his name was normal- "Beyond Birthday". Who would name their kid that? The sick murderer probably had issues with his family, or no family. That would explain the oddness. And of course they'd assign him, the new guy, to take care of the weirdo.
"Just come on. You have to eat, even if the food is shit. You're making this harder than it has to be."
Beyond's eyes rolled back to the ceiling. He then smirked, reached over and pulled the ugly, thin blanket back. Under it was a plain black notebook. He picked it up, flipping it to the almost blank first page.
The notebook's potential power was like a drug calling out to him. And anyone who knew B knew that he wasn't about to give up any sort of power. Especially if that power could help prove that he is superior to the man who was once his roll model- L.
The only thing written in the notebook was the name of his previous guard; it was a test. Now was the time for the real show, and little did Timothy know, but his time was about up.
"Hey! How'd you get that!?"
B ignored the guard as his pen scratched across the paper as B outlined what he wanted the man to do. When Beyond finished writing he turned his gaze to the man, smirking.
The man suppressed a shudder at the look that was directed at them. The once childish looking man now looked to be a thing of evil. Satan would be jealous.
Suddenly the man pulled out his keys, unlocking the cell door. He then gasped, gripping his chest, and collapsed to the floor. B grabbed the notebook and the guard's gun, laughing manically. He checked that the gun was loaded and set off down the hall.
He shot everyone he saw, even the already dead guards that he had killed with the Death Note.
He stopped his insane laugh for a moment and turned his gaze to the ceiling once again. "I told you that the fun would start soon! You won't regret giving me this notebook!" He laughed again. "It will be a blood bath!"
--
"Kira-kun! I'm hungry!"
Light glared at Ryuzaki coldly. "You're mistaken if you think calling me Kira is going to make me more cooperative."
"I cannot think properly when I don't have sweets and if I can't think, I can't solve this case. Only Kira would try to slow down or stop our investigation."
Light sighed, clearly annoyed. "We'd get a lot more investigating done if we didn't have to stop every hour to get you sugar."
"Perhaps, but-" L was cut off when his cell rang.
He pulled it out of his pocket with two fingers and flipped it open. He listened for a moment then got up and walked as far away from Light as the chain would allow.
Light raised an eyebrow at the detective, who was now whispering into the phone in English, probably to lessen the possibility of Light hearing or understanding. L had his back to the younger man so that he couldn't read his lips or see his face. Light saw the detective's muscles tense in worry or even fear.
"L?"
Ryuzaki ignored him and continued talking and Light returned to work.
After a short while L hung up and returned to Light's side.
"We're leaving." L's voice left no room for discussion and had lost its slightly childish quality.
Light looked up at him, questioning what he meant. It seemed unlikely that he was referring to a trip to the kitchen for food this time.
L tugged on the chain, encouraging him to get up, and he finally complied. L grabbed his laptop off the desk and the power cord.
Now Light was really confused. If they were going to the kitchen, L wouldn't take the laptop. If they were going to their room, he wouldn't bring the power cord because there was another in there. As for where ever else they could go, it would be highly unusual.
He followed L downstairs where a car and driver were waiting for them. As L began climbing into the car, he was jerked back by Light pulling on the chain.
"L, where are we going, " he demanded.
Those dark eyes met Light's. "America."
The young man's eyes widened and L once again tried to climb into the car, but Light didn't let him once again.
"America!? You get a phone call, try to hide it from me, and then you drag me out of the building to go to America and you don't even tell me until I don't give you a choice?!"
"Light-kun doesn't seem to understand that we're in a hurry."
"WHY?! And you could have told me anyway!"
"If I had told you any sooner than you would have demanded that I wait for you to pack," he replied, ignoring Light's question.
Light opened his mouth to speak, but L cut him off. "I'll get you anything you need once we get there. For now, get in the car and I'll explain the situation."
"No! I agreed to this," he shook the chain, "to prove my innocence, not to be dragged to another country on a whim!"
"Light-kun has two options. You may either come with willingly and help me as a detective, or you can refuse, in which case I can have you drugged and you'll find your self in America without any freedom as a Kira suspect. Either way, I'm not leaving you here."
Light knew that the eccentric detective was serious. He sighed. "I'll go with you if you remove the handcuffs. I assume we'll be going by plane and there is no way that they would allow it."
"Is Light-kun planning on running away?"
"No," he shook his head, "its just... awkward..."
"Light-kun... Just get in."
"No. Take off the cuffs and I will."
Light thought that the stubborn detective would just ignore him and not give him much of a choice, but to his surprise, L was actually reasonable. "If you run away, I will issue a warrant for your arrest. Not even you would want to risk the world finding out that you're Kira."
"I'm not Kira," he said sternly.
"Regardless, I don't have time to argue. I don't care if I have proof or not; if you run away, I will take it as an admission of guild and act accordingly. Understand?"
"Yes," he replied tersely.
L pulled out the key and unlocked the cuffs. He then climbed into the car followed by Light.
Once inside, L assumed his normal sitting position and Light rubbed his wrist unconsciously where the chain was.
"Thank you for trusting me," Light said in a sudden moment of graciousness.
"Don't misunderstand. I don't trust you. And I believe that you'd take advantage of me the first chance you get. But I know you won't do something so unintelligent."
Light frowned. "Are you going to tell me what is going on?"
L watched Light from the corners of his eye as he spoke. "Have you heard of th Los Angeles BB Murder Cases?"
"The ones with the wara ningyo?
"I actually didn't expect you to know. Light-kun probably found out when searching for- ow!" Light whacked him in the head. "-people to kill."
This time Light actually punched him, causing to topple over.
"Stop accusing me of being Kira! Just tell me what's going on!"
L briefly considered kicking Light in retaliation, but decided that telling his story was more important and he could always even the score later. He sat up.
"That was the case I worked on with Naomi Misora." Light nodded to show that he was listening. "The man behind it was named Beyond Birthday, and although that fact was released to the media, no one believed that it was his real name. A picture was never released."
"Why?"
L flipped open his laptop and opened a folder filled with files on various people, most of which were criminals that he recognized. As L scrolled down the page Light saw a folder with his won name on it and frowned at it although it wasn't completely unexpected.
Soon L found the file he was looking for and opened it. It was labeled Beyond Birthday and it contained various personal info as well as a picture. When Light saw it, his eyes widened.
His shocked gaze turned to L, asking for an explanation.
"You can only imagine the embarrassment that came with the knowledge that a criminal shares my face."
Recovering from his shock he turned back to the file, reading it quickly.
"If he dies, I will hold you responsible."
Light frowned but otherwise ignored the comment. "What does all of this have to do with us going to America now? The case was years ago."
"He escaped from jail."
Light gave L a questioning look. "You're taking a break on the Kira case to track down an escaped prisoner?"
"He was one of my many possible successors: B."
Light gapped at him incredulously.
"How many successors do you have exactly?" If there was a B, there was probably an A, too. And since he had said 'one of many' there could be a whole alphabet of them.
"That is classified."
Light frowned again. "So what went wrong? How did he turn out to be a criminal?"
L's eyes shifted to the pictures of B. "After I rose to prominence and became world renowned, Watari deduced that if L were to ever die the world's crime rate would increase."
"Like what happened after I was locked up. "Light commented, remembering how the crime rate had skyrocketed."
The comment, comparing Kira to L, annoyed him slightly but his reaction was almost imperceptible.
"So Watari enlisted the help of his friend Roger and set about trying to create a perfect replacement for me. They found intelligent children and gave them advanced work and logic exercises in hope of training them. It seems that the stress for some of them, especially the first ones, was too much. On February 25, A, the first of my possible successors, committed suicide."
Light tensed beside him.
"One year, two months, and five days later, B ran away. He went to LA and he killed his first victim three months later. You should know the rest."
"What did he hope to accomplish?" Light's voice was tense.
"To create a case that I couldn't solve."
"So he killed all those people just to prove that he is better than you?" Light was obviously angry, but his voice was calm.
"Yes."
Light closed his eyes, trying calm down before speaking. "How many?"
L blinked at him and Light opened his eyes to glare at him.
"How many lives have been ruined or lost because of you?! A and B weren't the only ones, were they?!"
"No, they weren't," Ryuzaki replied calmly.
Light shot him a poisonous glare and then turned, staring out the window.
"Light-kun," L laid his hand on the younger man's shoulder to get his attention.
"Don't touch me!" Light jerked away from his touch and L returned his hand to his knee. "You're a hypocrite! You're no better than Kira!"
"No. I may be a murderer, but I am nothing like Kira. The people I have killed were proven guilty in a court of law, unlike Kira's victims, some of which never even got a trial. As for my successors, it was necessary. And whatever they did was of their own volition. The responsibility does not lie solely with me."
"They were children, L!"
"I know that, Light-kun. But," Ryuzaki reached over and firmly grabbed Light's chin, forcing Light to face him, "so are you."
"I am not-" Light didn't get to finish his sentence when L pressed their lips together. Light's eyes widened in shock, but L pulled away before he could react.
"Be quiet. We are here."
The car stopped and they got out. Light's head was spinning, trying to analyze what had happened.
"Hurry up." L called over his shoulder as Light dragged the suitcase out of the car. He was too lost in his thoughts to object to carrying the suitcase while L did nothing.
--
After the plane landed they made their way to a overly fancy hotel as usual after renting a car and began setting up all of the computers and electronics that they'd need.
L planned to work through the computer with the police as he did before the Kira Case. He chose to do so not only to hide his identity but also because of his similarity to the very murderer they were trying to catch.
"Light-kun, since Watari is still in Japan and will remain there with the taskforce, will you assume his role?" L asked, not even bothering to look at the younger man.
"Hm? What would I have to do?" He asked cautiously, not trusting L to reveal the whole truth.
"Act as a middleman between myself and the police, collect any evidence or surveillance camera tapes, get me cake, and whatever else we might need for the investigation."
Light quirked an eyebrow at the eccentric detective. "I don't mind the first two, but I'm not your servant. Get your own cake."
Light-kun fails to understand that if I leave the hotel I could easily be confused with an escaped murderer and be arrested."
"That's unlikely. We both know that you won't let them release his picture to the public, so the only people who know what he looks like are the police and people who work at the jail. If it really is that big of a problem to leave the hotel room, just get room service," Light explained as he finished setting up the TVs.
"Light-kun!" L complained in a manner completely unfit for the world's greatest detective.
"No, I'm not your servant. I'll do the rest, but you can get your own food," he said, refusing to be swayed by the detective's childish antics.
L picked up the phone, clenched between two fingers, and called room service. When they answered he began speaking, "Bring up some tea with at least 36 sugar cubes, a whole strawberry cheese cake, and 3 brownies..." There was mumbling on the other side of the line that Light couldn't hear. "What?! You're out of strawberries?!" L hung up the phone. "Light-kun, we're leaving."
"Why?"
"If I have to order from room service and they don't have what I want, then we will go to another hotel that does have what I want," he replied as though it were obvious.
Light rolled his eyes. "Is it that important?"
"Yes. If it were not important, I wouldn't claim that it was."
Light sighed and picked up the phone once again calling room service. The same man answered and began demanding why L had hung up on him. Light ignored the pointless ramblings and cut him off. "If you don't have strawberries, than go and buy some," he demanded in a cold voice that left no room for arguing. Well, there was room for argument if you were a perfect example of the human race's spiraling idiocy.
Surprise, surprise. Someone who works in a hotel answering phone calls for a little more than minimum wage isn't the brightest crayon in the box. "But, sir, we are busy and can't just go running off whenever someone can't get what they want."
"Then find someone who isn't busy. I don't care if it is a cook, a maid, or the pool's lifeguard, just send someone."
"But-"
"No excuses. Tell who ever is willing to get them that they can look forward to a sizeable tip." Light didn't think that he should have to tip them for fixing a problem that was their fault anyway, but for the sake of convince, he would.
"How big of a tip?" The man asked, actually interested and cooperative for the first time.
Light sighed. The world really did revolve around money. "You won't be disappointed."
"Er- I'll be right back, sir. Is there anything else you wanted?"
Light smirked; the man was being so obtrusive at the beginning and then once money was mentioned, he was ready to be a perfect little servant. "No, just make sure you bring up everything my friend ordered once the cake is done."
"Yeah, ok." Light hung up and turned to L who was staring at him with those big black eyes.
"Light-kun is good at manipulating people," L commented.
"You should be thanking me, not accusing me of things," Light chastised off handedly as he gracefully sat down in a chair.
"I apologize if Light-kun doesn't like the truth."
"Just because you believe something doesn't necessarily mean that it is the truth," he shot a glare at the detective.
"Would Light-kun go out to dinner with me?" L said as though he was talking about some pointless, everyday thing like the weather.
"What?" Light raised an eyebrow and studied the detective. "Does he mean like a date? Or did he just phrase it badly?"
"We'll go after you get the surveillance tapes and we talk to the guards at the prison."
"I thought that you didn't want anyone to see your face," he pointed out.
"I don't."
"Then how can we go out to dinner?"
"It's simple really." Light expected him to say more, but he didn't and just turned back to his computer.
Light sighed. "Ok. I trust you have a plan."
"Of course. Now go get those tapes for me. Take the other lap top and, when you get there, set it up so that I may speak to the guards."
Light nodded. "Won't I-"
L cut him off, "I have a fake ID for you that says that you are part of the NPA and a badge too, naturally, that state that you're name is Asahi Kousei (1). Only the people with relevant information that I speak to should know that you work for me."
"Ok. Anything else?"
"Take the car we rented and the GPS will give you directions to the prison. And wear one of those belts that I gave to everyone in the taskforce."
Light nodded, grabbed the stuff, and was about to open the door when L called his name, making him stop and turn around to face him.
"Here." L threw a shiny metal object to Light, which he caught easily. Light's eyes widened at it and then he frowned. A gun... "Beyond is extremely dangerous. I wouldn't be surprised if he was there and attacked you for your relation to me."
"L, I don't have a license to carry this. It's illegal. Besides, I thought you didn't trust me."
"I don't trust you. And Kousei has a license. Even if they looked for the records they wouldn't find any trace of deception."
Light's frown deepened. "You're actions contradict your words. You say you don't trust me, yet you give me a gun. If I were Kira I could kill you in a second."
"True, but the camera on my computer is on and transmitting footage of this to Watari. If you did any such thing, you'd be immediately arrested."
"Ryu-"
"Don't argue. Just take it."
Light sighed again. He may be in another country in a luxury hotel, but this was in no way a vacation. After shoving it into his pocket, he turned around and left before L could stop him again.
--
"Excuse me," Light said, standing up and leaving the warden's office. Once in the hall he pulled out his cell and called L who answered immediately.
"L, most of the guards are dead. The only ones still alive know almost nothing about Beyond."
"Did you get the security tapes?"
"Yes."
"Let me speak to the warden."
"Fine, but first, I thought that you should now that most of the guards died from heart attacks."
L, who was rarely surprised, was caught off guard at his revelation.
"He must have attained Kira's power's somehow."
"Light-kun, do not leave the prison without covering your face. He may have the second Kira's ability to kill with only a face, so you must take precautions. Delete any surveillance camera footage you appear on. Understand?"
"Yes. Do you still want to speak to the warden?"
"Yes."
Light and L hung up almost simultaneously and Light walked back into the office. When he entered he briefly checked the room for cameras. If there were any, they wouldn't be hidden; the people knew that they were being watched, so hiding them would be superfluous.
"Mr. Hastle, I'm afraid that I haven't been completely honest with you; I am not here on behalf of the NPA, but instead as a representative for L."
He appeared shocked for a second before speaking. "This is 'cause of all the heart attacks, ain't it? Ya think this involved that Kira of ya's?"
The man's lack of proper English bothered Light due to his perfectionism, but he ignored it. "Yes. And now L would like to speak with you."
"Is dat so? Fine by me."
Light set the computer on the desk, and then, after a second of typing and clicking, the screen went blank except for a large black L. Light then rotated the computer to face the warden.
"'ello, Mr. L," he said in his gruff voice.
"Good afternoon. I would like to ask you some questions," L's voice came through scrambled, a sound that Light hadn't heard in a while and sparked a bit of inexplicable anger, but he brushed it off.
"Go ahead."
Light sat down in a chair, listening to the conversation, ready to insert a comment or question if he felt necessary.
"Have you ever met Beyond face-to-face?"
"Eh? No, but why-" L just kept talking instead of waiting to hear his question, causing Light to frown. The detective really had no social skills.
"Have any of the guards reported odd behavior from him?"
"Odd?" The man laughed. "From what I've heard the kid eats nothing but sugar, refuses to sit normally, has large creepy eyes, hardly ever sleeps, and talks to himself!"
"Why does that sound familiar," Light thought sarcastically.
Hastle continued, "Is there anything about him that isn't odd?!" The laughter continued.
L quickly ate a bit of cake, as he thought. "He did talk to himself sometimes, but could he be talking to someone else? ...a shinigami?"
"Kousei-kun, get the surveillance tapes for 2 weeks prior to the incident."
"Fine."
"Mr. Hastle, were there any changes in his behavior?"
"Not that I know of... His guard killed 'imself a few days ago. No one expected it. He ain't depressed or nothin'."
Light once again fought off the urge to correct the man's horrid grammar.
"Thank you for your cooperation. If I need anything more I'll contact you." The screen went blank and Light picked up the computer, closing it.
"I will collect the surveillance tapes and then I will be leaving. Due to the possible involvement with Kira, I would appreciate it if you could barrow a helmet from the Riot Squad gear to cover my face when I leave."
"Huh? Oh, yeah... Go ahead..."
Light nodded and left the office. After collecting all of the needed tapes and a helmet, he made his way out of the jail.
It was an average autumn day; the trees were wearing bright reds, oranges, and yellows, a light breeze tousled Light's auburn hair, and a few birds flew overhead. It was peaceful, but so superficial.
As he approached his car, he noticed that there was someone in it. Someone with dark messy hair and was hunched over, but he couldn't see any more details from that distance.
It had to be either L or B, but he wouldn't know until he got closer. Unless...
Light pulled out his cell and dialed L's number. He answered immediately, but the figure in the car didn't move.
"Light-kun?" L asked when Light was silent.
"I'll call you back later." Light was about to hang up when he heard L tell him to wait. He returned the phone to his ear. "Yes?"
"Be careful."
L then hung up and Light followed suit.
Light stuck his hand in the pocket with the gun in it, gripping it tightly and barely touching the trigger.
He calmly strolled over to the car and pounded on the window with an angry expression on his face. The truth was that Light was afraid, but he'd never show it.
The man, B, rolled his eyes to look at Light without moving his head. The action was creepily familiar.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing!? Get out of my car!"
After doing nothing for several long moments, B climbed out of the car, taking a jar with him.
"Excuse me, I must have been confused. I thought L would send Watari."
"He must really be B..." Light kept a look of annoyance plastered on his face, not wanting to give away his connection to L that easily. His eyes were concealed by the helmet, but the lower half of his face was exposed and so he had to keep up the false expressions.
"To apologize, I'll give you some of my jam if you want." He held out the jar.
Light frowned and arched an eyebrow. "...jam?"
"Yes, it's very good." He opened the jar and scooped some out with his hand, causing Light to cringe. "What happened to Quillsh? And who are you?"
"Quillsh? Could he be talking about Watari?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Light smiled condescendingly. "You must have me confused for someone else."
Without warning, Light felt a blunt pain in his stomach as B kicked him, causing him to fall back, hitting the car.
"Don't lie to me. We both know that you're L's newest pet. What I don't understand is why you're doing Watari's job."
"Bastard," Light punched him in the jaw, knocking him back and giving him a bloody lip.
Light then reached for the gun, but realized too late that B had knocked it out of his pocket when he kicked Light.
B then pulled out a knife. Light didn't have time to react before the cold steal was dragged across his stomach, biting into the flesh.
B was delighted at the sight of blood seeping out of the wound and seeping into Light's perfect white shirt, and he began laughing manically.
The wound was fairly shallow, but it hurt like hell. Light punched him in the stomach and then grabbed the hand with the knife, prying it free.
Light noticed a second too late that B had pulled out another knife with his other hand. Beyond quickly plunged the short blade into Light's stomach. He considered going for the heart, but the knife was too short to reach, so he aimed to tear through the large intestine, but Light moved so that the knife would hit a less vital part. (2) He pulled out the blade and Light fell to the ground with a loud gasp.
Light felt his mind start to shut down, to go into shock, but he refused to let it. B was stronger than expected, but he wasn't to just let himself die.
He reached out and grabbed the gun quickly, and then rolled onto his back, aiming where B was just standing.
He was gone.
Light looked around, but there was no sign of him. He must have run and Light missed the sound of foot steps because of he was much more focused on not dying.
He sighed in relief that his helmet was still on as he carefully sat up. He had no intention of dying, whether it be by a knife or through Kira's powers.
Light had always been opposed to people using guns (with the exception of the police, of course) , and although the safest thing to have done was to shoot Beyond as soon as he got the chance, he couldn't. His morals wouldn't have let him. He could have threatened him with the gun and tried to arrest him, but he didn't have handcuffs or anything. He had hoped to get information from him, but he wasn't that lucky. All he got was the name "Quillsh," which he assumed was Watari's real name.
Light heard foot steps and aimed the gun toward the sound, but it was just the warden running toward him, so he lowed it.
"Hey! Are you ok!?" he crouched down beside Light.
"Yes. Call an ambulance, but don't let them know who I work for."
"Yeah, ok."
The old man pulled out his cell and called 911 while Light called L.
"Ryuzaki, he was in my car and, after approaching him, I was attacked. I'll be fine though," Light said matter-of-factly, knowing that any display of emotion would be wasted on the detective."
"Have you called an ambulance or can you drive back?"
"I'll need stitches, so I'm going to the hospital, but I'll come back as soon as I can."
"Don't hurt yourself worse by being stubborn."
"What do you care? It's your fault that all of this happened. Besides, you think I'm Kira, so don't you want me dead?" Light switched from English to Japanese so that the warden wouldn't understand what he was saying.
"I do care, I just have a responsibility as L to make sure Kira faces justice," L replied tonelessly.
Light was quickly becoming angry, but wasn't going to waste his energy on it, not when there was a hole in his stomach. "Catch that bastard, L. Then we can go back to the Kira case."
Light expected a comment about how he was Kira just because he was willing to leave the case to the rest of the taskforce for a short while, but L surprised him. "I appreciate your assistance. I will make sure that he doesn't hurt you again."
Light knew that it was an empty promise, but for some reason he wanted to believe it.
Light never trusted anyone but himself, yet for some reason he wanted to trust L. It was silly really. They were enemies, right?
The phone started beeping and he realized that L had hung up right before Light could say anything. Frowning, Light leaned back on the car, the blood loss was making him dizzy and his brain was slowing down.
"Are ya ok?" the old man asked.
"Yes, but I'll need stitches."
"Well-" he stopped speaking suddenly, and after a brief pause he continued again. "Why don't you remove that helmet. He is gone."
Light noticed that his face was suddenly devoid of any expression and that his accent was gone. "We don't know that for sure," he said as he eyed him suspiciously, his hand clenching around the gun.
The man lunged at him, attempting to drag the helmet off his head by force. Light, acting quickly him in the temple with the handle of the gun. He was stunned, but was still conscience.
Light kicked him in the stomach, knocking the man onto his back and grunting at the pain from the knife wound he received earlier. He aimed the gun at his leg, so if he attempted to get up, he'd be injured instead of killed. He had plenty of questions, though he suspected that he was somehow being controlled by Kira.
And if that didn't work, he had a second bullet, which, if forced to use it, would find itself lodged in the man's very small brain.
The old man laughed oddly. "Tell L that I said happy birthday! Oh, and I left a present for him in your car." He then gasped and gripped his chest. His eyes rolled back and he shuddered, then his hands relaxed and his head rolled back, his mouth open in a silent plea for help as his heart stopped.
Simon Hastle was dead, and Light had a sinking feeling that, unless the ambulance got there soon, he'd be next.
Life is far to fragile. They all knew it, but it came as a shock to Light to have a dead body at his feet and a murderer in the surrounding forest. It was a harsh reality, especially without his memories of being Kira. It wasn't about having a problem with dead bodies, but it served to remind him of how close he was to being killed. If he passed out, B could come out of hiding and kill him with that knife, or if he hadn't stopped the warden from pulling off his helmet, he'd be killed with Kira's powers. It was too damn easy.
Light felt a wave of relief as he saw the flashing lights and screeching sirens converge on his location. He knew that there'd be a lot of questions for him later, about the dead warden, about Beyond, about the gun, but he intended to let L handle it. L got him into this mess, and he sure as hell could get him out of it.
"Besides," he thought smirking slightly, "L promised."
--
(1) The name is in traditional Japanese name order. I got the given name through a slightly random process. "Light" is usually written with the kanji for moon (weird, ne?), so to get this name, I found the kanji that would normally be used if you translated the word "light". Then I tried to find a fitting name for Light with that kanji. But I couldn't find any names that really suited him, but I chose one that worked and was read "Kousei". But then I found a different set of kanji for it, although it doesn't contain the kanji for "light" anymore. But I'm happy with it. It's 厚正 (still read "Kousei"). And the kanji mean "kind", "cordial", or "shameless" and the second is "correct", "justice," or "righteousness". Its delightfully ironic. And for the family name, "Asahi," it was actually the fake name that L gave to Light's father in book 2. The kanji (朝日) mean "morning" and "sun". (There are multiple other meanings, but these are the most common.)
(2) If you puncture the large intestine the mostly digested food will spread into the circulatory system and spread throughout the body. As disgusting as I'm sure this sounds, I feel compelled to say it: at this point the food is more like feces than food, thus it is full of harmful bacteria and viruses. Basically, its not good at all. If not treated right away, it will be fatal. And he moved so that he was stabbed a bit to the left of it where there aren't any organs. Basically where the appendix would be if it was on the left and not the right. Smart Light, ne? Oh, and since my knowledge of anatomy is fairly limited (although greater than most people's) I may be wrong. If someone sees a flaw in this, tell me.
I have made a few changes in the actual story (manga and novel) but they are minor. The first major change is that Light, as Kira, never killed B (for those of you who don't know, B was killed because he is a murderer, and Light never knew of his relationship with L). Second, Naomi stopped B a few moments before he tried to kill himself. The amount of scaring that would result by setting yourself on fire is so extreme that it makes Mello's scar look like a paper cut. And although the facial scar thing works for Mello, full body scars aren't that sexy.
Sorry for the really long notes; I promise it won't be this long in the future.
I'd love to know what you think of my fic, so review please!