This world is rotten.
Crimes, they're everywhere.
People who deserve to be punished are tolerated.
True justice has been forgotten.
What is justice?
One word: righteousness.
I wanted to cleanse the world from evil.
I didn't want to see criminals anymore.
World Peace is what I truly wanted.
The Death Note lured me into wanting more.
I was too confident that I will win.
I craved for power over people.
I believed I could literally be their light.
I wanted to become God.
But I guess…
It was too foolish of me.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw the tall buildings outside the clear windows of the room. I guessed it was already noon since it was so bright outside. A comfy pillow was lying behind my head. My body was wrapped in a white blanket. My hair was all messed up, I could tell even though I haven't seen my reflection yet. I still felt too weak to move.
A question popped in my head right away. "Where am I?"
Only silence answered my question. I looked around although my vision was still slightly vague. I saw the dextrose attached to me, the white walls of the room. It was rather cold in there. And surely, it was a private room seeing as my bed was the only one in there. When I turned my head to the side, I saw a raven-haired girl, resting her arms on the side of the bed, sleeping peacefully. No doubt it was Sayu. It was as if I didn't have the right to call her my sister anymore. I watched her for a while, thinking how long has she been staying beside me. I wanted to wake her up just so she could see I'm conscious already but then her phone rang.
As expected, Sayu immediately woke up and rummaged through her purse to get her phone. It was mom calling. "Hello?" she said. "I just woke up, mom." She still hasn't noticed me. "Oh, brother, he's alright… he's still…"
The phone was dropped to the bed when she glanced at me. Her eyes widened and her mouth slightly opened. "B-brother!" Gritting her teeth, tears were starting to leak out from her eyes. I smiled sweetly at her. And then I was attacked by a huge hug.
"Brother, I'm so glad you're awake already!" She almost screamed, shutting her eyes, squeezing out the tears. "You don't know how much we were worried about you!"
I chuckled. "I'm sorry, Sayu," I said weakly. I didn't hug back at all. I just couldn't bring myself to it even though I wanted to. She stopped hugging me, sat beside me and looked at me with worried eyes.
"They told us what happened."
"I'm sorry," I repeated as my head dipped.
"No…"
"No?" I looked at her.
She closed her eyes. "No, it wasn't your fault!"
"It's futile to insist that."
"But brother… you… you were only trying to get rid of evil."
Shocked, I stared at her for a while, not knowing what to say. But I found myself smiling after a couple of seconds. I held her face and made her look at me. "That's right," I said gently. "But big brother became evil in the process. He started killing innocent people in order to protect himself."
"You wouldn't have done that if L didn't get in your way!" She balled her hands into fists.
"That's probably true." I looked away. "But it's over now. What's done is done and I have yet to face retribution of my sins."
"I don't want you to be locked up in the jail and rot there."
She said it without hesitation. She was being too straight forward today. I could guess she's been waiting for the day to come when I would wake up already.
"It's fine," I said as I patted her head. "I deserve it."
"But shouldn't we atleast hang out for a bit before you go?" She pouted.
"I don't know if they would allow me."
She smiled and stood up. "I'll go downstairs to tell them you're awake now." She picked up her phone and gave it to me. "Here, talk to mom for a while. I'll be right back."
For hours, Near has been playing chess alone in his dark room. Before he could checkmate the black king for the umpteen times, he paused for a moment and listened to the quiet footsteps of someone familiar behind him.
"He's not dead yet," he said quietly as he gripped the white queen in his hand. "This war isn't over."
A guy in a white sweater walked out of the shadows, held Near's hand and took the queen from it. "He doesn't need to be dead for us to win," the detective said. "More importantly, this isn't about who's going to win." Near looked up at him, his hands cupping his knees. "Ever since then, it was about bringing justice back."
A smiled formed on Near's face as L placed the chess piece on the board.
"Checkmate."