Hello everyone. This is my first Death Note fic, so feel free to give constructive criticism on how I can improve it for future reference. I just recently got into the DN fandom. The other day, when I was watching Titus and Wonderfalls, I decided to write this fic for fun.
This story is an AU oneshot. It could be seen as slash or friendship. Raito is not Kira, someone else picked up the death note, and I'm following the Wonderfalls' idea where Raito hears inanimate objects talking to him and telling him to do stuff. Fun, right:)
Anything in italics is a flashback.
Lawyers: Our client does not own Death Note, nor does she one Wonderfalls. Don't sue her.
Deathfalls
When Raito joined the task force, it wasn't because he was a suspect in the Kira case. Quite the contrary, the odds of him being Kira were less than half of one percent. It's true that in the beginning L suspected him, but after having Raye Penber follow him and after monitoring the teen himself, L could confidently say that Raito was not Kira.
There was, however, something very off about Raito. While monitoring the teen, more than once L had witnessed Raito speak to a number of different animal figurines. L wondered at the time if it was just animals or if it was all inanimate objects that Raito believed to be speaking to him. Soichiro, shocked by what he saw on the video monitors, had no explanation to offer.
Still, after a few tests, L couldn't deny that Raito's detective skills rivaled his own. So despite the teen's borderline-insane quirk, Raito joined the task force.
L stood alone in one of the elevators of their headquarters, waiting for it to take him up to where his and Raito's room resided. When they moved into their new headquarters, L had wanted to keep a close eye on Raito's odd habit, and so the two ended up rooming together.
The elevator doors opened and L silently made his way down the hall to the door of their room.
The Kira case was nearly done. Both suspects were in custody and only a few minor details needed to be worked out.
The case wasn't why L was going to see Raito though. With the threat of Kira under control, everyone was coming back down to reality and returning to their normal lives. Unfortunately, Raito was anything but normal, as they consequently discovered during their investigation, and Soichiro wanted to fix his son's abnormality.
Entering their room, L found Raito sitting on the edge of his bed with his back to the detective. He slowly approached the teen to see what had captivated his attention. Walking around the end of the bed, L saw that Raito was staring at several inanimate animal object neatly set up in a line on the floor. There was a penguin statue, a stuffed green rabbit, a pig keychain, some sort of plastic yellow mouse with stripes on its back, and a blue metal puppy.
"I did not realize there was anything like that left in headquarters," L commented, sitting down on the bed next to Raito in his usual manner. When their current headquarters had been built, L made sure to have no inanimate object with a face present inside the building. "You hid them quiet well."
Raito remained silent, not looking away from the animal objects on the carpet.
"Are they speaking to you now, Raito-kun?" L asked curiously.
Glaring at the animals, he replied, "I'm not crazy."
"Are you sure of that?" L asked, looking at Raito with his head tilted to the side. "There are three key factors involved when declaring someone insane. 'Harm to others' is one. I'm sure you remember that woman you pushed..."
Had there not been several witnesses to back up Raye Penber's story, L wouldn't have believed it. Raye had been tailing Raito as usual when it happened. The FBI agent reported that Raito appeared to be quietly talking to a pig keychain at the time, glaring down at it as if it had insulted him. Then suddenly, for no reason apparent to Raye, Raito walked past a woman who had been standing on the sidewalk's edge and pushed her into the street directly in the path of a speeding bus.
Because it happened so fast, they were thankfully able to pass it off as Raito tripping into the woman and 'accidentally' pushing her into the street.
"Did the pig keychain tell you to do that?" L asked.
Instead of answering his question, Raito pointed out, "The bus stopped before it hit her, and you can't deny the results."
"That is true," L agreed. "If I recall correctly, there had been a hijacker on the bus. When the driver instinctually stopped quick, the hijacker received a concussion and one of our FBI agents that was on that bus was able to apprehend him. Still, what if that bus didn't stop, Raito-kun?"
"Then I wouldn't have pushed her," he said stubbornly.
L frowned, but let Raito's flawed logic slide and said, "Fair enough. The second factor would be 'harm to self.'" Looking down at the animals on the ground, he asked a bit skeptically, "Did they really tell you to lick the outlet? I do not understand how that could be beneficial to you or them."
L should have suspected that something was going to happen when Raito snatched the chocolate rabbit out of his hands that morning and stared at it with a look of horror. Yet the young genius was adamant about keeping anything that could possibly be wrong to himself and so everyone had no other choice but to get back to work.
Snapping the chocolate rabbit in half, Raito returned the body to L, who refused to get back to work otherwise, and kept the head for himself.
It wasn't until much later on in the day when it happened. In the middle of a downpour, L had gone up to the roof to have a moment alone to himself. Raito eventually found him and dragged the detective back down to their room so that they could dry off.
Dripping wet, L entered the bathroom and grabbed a towel to dry himself off with. He really didn't care if he was soaked one way or the other, but Raito was persistent and L decided not to fight him on something so menial. Standing in the bathroom, he was suddenly aware of a faint conversation going on in the bedroom between Raito and... nobody else.
Grabbing a second towel for his disturbed friend who had yet to come in and dry himself off, L called out as he walked back into the room, "Raito-kun, I have a towel for you."
He froze in the doorway at the sight he walked in on, the towels falling from his hands. The only sign of his shock was a slight intake of breath.
Raito was kneeling on the ground in front of an electrical outlet that, L vaguely noted, recently underwent a water treatment via a leak in the ceiling, and was currently leaning forward with his tongue out as if the outlet were made of candy.
"Raito-kun, no!" he shouted, running to his friend, but he wasn't quick enough.
Raito's tongue connected with the outlet and what followed was the sickening noise of crackling electricity. The lights flickered for a moment before going off completely as all power in the building shut down.
Blinded by the dark, L dropped to his hands and knees and carefully shuffled his way over to where he believed Raito to be. He grimaced at the faint scent of burnt flesh as he got closer. Finally his hand connected with an arm and he lightly brushed his fingers over Raito's body until he reached the boy's neck. His eyes began to adjust as he felt for a pulse.
"Nothing."
Immediately he began chest compressions, all the while hoping that the back-up generators would kick in soon so that he could contact Watari and get Raito better help.
"You almost did not make it. Had Watari not come to our room with the defibrillator..." L trailed off, not needing to continue.
"It... told me to save you all from her," Raito said hesitantly, admitting out loud for the first time ever that he heard the inanimate objects talking to him. "Then it said to lick the outlet."
"Misa Amane," L said, and Raito nodded. "Yes, it was after that little incident that we learned of the death note."
When the electricity came back on and the cameras reset themselves (apparently they had been tampered with), Ide had been found dead in the elevator due to a heart attack. Laying unconscious next to him was the well-known Misa Amane with the death note on the floor between them.
Apparently Misa found out that Ide was on the task force against Kira and caught him off guard when he had been out that day on an errand for the case. By writing his name in the death note, she used him to break into headquarters with the intention of killing everyone before they knew what was happening. However, with the power-outage, the two ended up stuck in the elevator and before Ide's time ran out, he knocked Misa unconscious.
"The final factor considered when declaring someone insane is 'destruction of property.' Am I to assume that the reason for the fire was to destroy the other death note? Eiji Tanaka, a former classmate of yours, appears to have no memory of being Kira despite Misa's confession; something that could be due to the destruction of the first death note," L said.
"You found its cover, didn't you," Raito said, annoyed.
"That is beside the point, Raito-kun," L said. "There were other people living in that apartment complex too."
"The needs of the many outweigh those of the few," Raito said.
Amused, L said, "That sounds like something Kira would say."
"I didn't realize that the fire would get so big," Raito mumbled, his eyes downcast.
Spotting the one that everyone had been looking for, Watari parked up by the curb a short distance away from the apartment complex that was completely up in flames. Walking back down the sidewalk to the roaring inferno, Watari pushed past the residents of the apartment complex to reach Raito.
"Mr. Yagami, everyone's been looking for you," he said, resting a hand on Raito's shoulder.
He didn't respond, he just stared up at the burning building with a slightly dazed look on his face and a small penguin statue held loosely in his hands.
Seeing the statue and knowing Raito's tendencies from past experience, Watari quietly asked, "Did you start this fire?"
Still, he said nothing. Sighing, Watari pulled out his cell phone and called up L.
"I found him. He had another incident... Yes, I'm on my way back with him now."
The two sat in silence with L watching Raito and Raito staring back down at the animals on the ground.
Finally, Raito said, "I'm not crazy."
"No, I do not believe you are," L agreed. "It would be hypocritical of me to know and witness the supernatural powers of the death note and yet not believe that inanimate objects talk to you."
Throwing him an incredulous look, Raito asked, "If you believe I'm sane, then why did you just tell me all of that?"
"Because, Raito-kun, although I know you are sane, I needed to know if you know that you are sane," L stated simply.
Raito fell backwards, laying on the bed with his arms at his sides and his legs hanging over the edge.
"Sometimes you can be really ridiculous, L," he said, then added quietly, more to himself, "Of course I'm sane."
"Your father wants to have you institutionalized," L said, looking down at his sane friend with a quirk.
"I know," Raito growled quietly.
"You know?" L questioned. "I am surprised you are still here and not making an escape. It is the survival of your future, after all."
"Running would be pointless," Raito said. "All of you will catch me before I get even a mile away from this place."
"You misunderstand, Raito-kun," L said. "I do not want you to be sent away, as you are quite sane."
"Thanks L, but that doesn't change my father's opinion," Raito said.
"No, it does not," L agreed. "But perhaps I can assist you in your elaborate escape."
Raito's eyes darted to the security camera positioned in the corner of the room.
"The cameras here are off. No one is watching," L assured him.
Raito sat up and stared L in the eyes, as if checking to see if he was being completely serious about the matter.
"Just how would I go about this elaborate escape?" he asked cautiously.
"The cameras will mysteriously malfunction, of course," L said. "I will keep the rest of the task force busy while you slip outside unnoticed. Wedy will be waiting for you in a car out back and she will take you to a private jet that will fly you to England. A plane will take you to your final destination from there."
"But what about-"
"Do not worry, Raito," L said. "Everything has been taken care of. When this is all over, might you possibly be interested in joining me on more cases?"
Giving the detective a small smile, "That would be nice, L, but I'll still have my, what have you called it, 'quirk'?"
"That is not a problem, Raito-kun. It is an endearing quirk."
Raito was glad L thought so. He definitely didn't think that when he first heard the inanimate animal object talking to him...
Raito sat in class, bored out of his mind. The teacher was teaching a subject he already knew all there was to know about it, so he felt no need to pay attention. His eyes drifted out the window, watching the scenery outside it. He mentally sighed, wishing that something exciting would happen to him.
"Hey, boy, look down here!" he suddenly heard someone call out.
Because the voice was so much more different from the usual droning tone of his teacher, he looked away from the window and looked around for the owner of the voice. None of his classmates appeared to have spoken. Shrugging it off, Raito was about to look out the window again when-
"Down here!"
His eyes were drawn to the stuffed animal sticking out of one of his classmate's bag; a stuffed animal that just opened its mouth and talked to him. He was so stunned by the sight that he completely missed the black notebook falling out of the sky.
That's the end of my first Death Note oneshot. Tell me what you think.
Review please!