Zoh my god, it's not a Naruto fanfic. How is it possible?
My first attempt at anything besides Naruto (well, first attempt that I deemed worthy of other people's eyes), I'm hoping for a possitive response, or any response at all, that would be good too.
Reviews make me happy, alerts and favorites make me ecstatic.
Update August 7: I make amends to the above statement. Alerts and favorites make me ecstatic IF AND ONLY IF they are coupled with reviews. Otherwise they prompt very little response.
I have to thank my beta rukia23, because if not for her, I don't think I ever would have gotten the confidence to post this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, althoug you wouldn't know if I did, because i love it just the way it is. If I wrote it, there would have been even fewer survivors and it would probably be a lot less brilliant.
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A
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Asami stood outside the hospital door, double checking the number she'd written down at the front desk with the name on the plaque outside to make sure that she didn't barge in on some stranger instead of Yagami Soichiro. She couldn't help but overhear a little of the conversation on the other side of the door. Yagami talking to someone called Ryuzaki. The word investigation came up, so she waited for his voice to die down in case it was something classified before she cracked open the door. That gave her a little time to make a last minute attempt to look good above the waist, where her "business woman" look of a skirt, tights and inch-and-a-half heals ended promptly with a large blue sweatshirt.
Inside, next to his bed, was his son, Light, no big surprise since classes at the university he was attending ended a few hours ago. Crouching on the chair next to him was a dark haired man with similarly colored eyes surrounded by dark circles like those of insomniacs, and dressed in a plain white shirt and jeans a size or two too big for his skinny frame. This man, presumably named Ryuzaki, seemed out of place next to Light in his neat university casual.
Light turned to the open door and waved while his father lifted his IV-free arm weakly. "I heard from my brother," she said awkwardly. "Since I haven't seen you in a while, I thought I should come by today, before visiting hours are over…"
"It's good to see you again, Asami. You haven't been over since Sayu was what, ten?" Light said.
"Eleven, just before you went into high school," she corrected. "But I see Yagami-san at the NPA sometimes, when my brother gets lazy and doesn't feel like walking home."
"I haven't met him," Light said, almost to himself. "But dad says that of all the detectives his age in the NPA, he's got the most potential."
Yagami senior nodded silently.
"Yeah," she said softly.
"What is your brother's name, Asami-san?"
The question caught her by surprise, especially since it consisted of the first words she'd heard Ryuzaki say. His voice was soft and eerily calm. "N-Nakamura Akira," she stuttered, mentally kicking herself for doing it. She hadn't stuttered since she was in Junior High, during her first time babysitting ten year old Yagami Light and six year old Sayu when their mother went out for the day.
Ryuzaki tilted his head back and pressed his thumb to his lip. "Yes, I remember him. Quite brilliant for only thirty years old. I had almost forgotten he had a sister, though. And a brother: Nakamura Tarou, twenty seven, correct?"
"Y-Yes."
"And that makes you the youngest: Nakamura Asami, twenty two."
"Twenty three. Well, almost. Next week."
"Yes. Happy birthday."
Asami wondered where he had gotten all this information on her and her family. He must work for the police.
The room was far too silent for several minutes. Asami tried to think of some kind of conversation, but instead of, "How are you feeling, Yagami-san?" what came out was, "Why are you sitting like that, Ryuzaki?"
Light answered for him with a chuckle. "Ryuga claims that it increases his reasoning ability by 40 percent. I say he's just making it up though."
"I am not, Yagami-kun. It really does."
Asami laughed.
"Um, excuse me?" A nurse poked her head in the door. "Visiting hours are over now," she said.
"So you're a detective?" she asked after she slid the door shut behind them. She had gotten the feeling it wouldn't have been the best idea to confirm her suspicions in front of a man who'd just had a stress related heart attack.
Light looked at her, surprised.
Ryuzaki, who had never taken his eyes off of her, asked, "Why do you say that, Asami-san?"
She took a deep breath and started walking to gather her thoughts. She'd never been great explaining why she knew things. That was more of Akira's forte.
Light and Ryuzaki followed her down the hall and into the elevator. She suddenly wished she'd left the sweatshirt behind when she left home, although it gave her something to shove her hands into.
"Well, Asami-san?"
With her hands securely hidden in the deep pocket, she said, "I grew up with one, my dad, who worked on all his cases at home. He always told me that while a detective was working on a case, he hardly ever stops thinking about it. My dad would space out, and that's how we could tell not to bother him because he was trying to work something out with an investigation or whatever it was. So if Ryuzaki says that sitting that way increases his reasoning ability by 40 percent, it would make sense that, if he was a detective, he would sit like that almost all the time. If he wasn't, and was in some other profession, there would be no need for 40 percent more reasoning ability while doing regular activities, like visiting his friend's father in the hospital."
Ryuzaki nodded. "Correct. Anything else?"
"Are you following the Kira case? I mean, besides whatever else you're working on right now. My brother says that no matter what case they're on, everyone he knows in the agency is trying to figure it out for themselves, even though L's working on it officially."
Ryuzaki seemed to take a moment longer than normal to answer. The door opened. "Yes, I am. It's very interesting to me, a criminal that kills with heart attacks. Can I assume that you are also following the case?"
"Of course. My brother wasn't allowed to stay on the case because my father said it wasn't worth risking his life for after the FBI agents were killed, but the Kira case is all we talk about in our house these days."
She tilted her head to one side and looked at Ryuzaki. He stared back. "You look like you have something else to say, Asami-san."
She turned away from him. Something crucial had just clicked. "Light called you Ryuga…" she muttered. "Which is different from what Yagami-san called you. And neither of them should be on first name basis with you, but Ryuzaki isn't a family name. It sounds more like a nickname or an alias, but it doesn't make sense that he would be addressing a fellow detective by a nickname, unless he normally goes by a nickname anyway. But there aren't any detectives in the police that go by them, even among colleagues.
"And the only reason I can think of to have two different names is if your real name isn't known to the public. But, if you aren't a well known detective, there's no reason to be deceiving people when it comes to your name, and you'd only need to do that if you were in a dangerous situation in the first place, one in which people knowing your real name would be a bad thing. In that case, you would have to change your name in different situations to keep people from finding out what your real name is, or to keep them from finding out another vital piece of information about you." Her voice was starting to rise in excitement.
"So Ryuzaki/Ryuga is someone who has to protect his identity and everything he can about himself, mostly his name because he's been giving different names depending on who he meets. So it can be assumed that he's in a position were average people knowing his name or identity would be bad, because, for example, if someone on the street or a friend is Kira, who can kill with just a name and a face, he could be killed by them, and he's also trying not to let Kira know that he's someone working on the case. But Yagami-san is also working on the case, and he's not being as careful as handing out fake names, partially because he can't since people already know him. So in order to be able to give different people different names, Ryuzaki/Ryuga has to be in a position so that he won't be recognized by anyone as having some other name or identity. And the one person capable of doing all that simultaneously is…L." She stopped, almost not realizing that she'd been talking out loud.
Light looked somewhat surprised, staring blankly for a moment before breaking into a smile. "I think you've gotten smarter than me, Asami. Ryuga had to tell me that he was L."
She blushed. "Please Light. I'm sure he did it before you had met him, otherwise he wouldn't have had to. I might be five years older than you, but you're still smarter than I am."
"Those were actually very good deductions, Asami-san," Ryuzaki/Ryuga/L said. "There were some holes, of course, but almost everything made perfect sense. Of course, if not for Yagami-kun's screw up," Light shot him a momentary glare, "I hope you wouldn't have been able to figure all that out, since I am L."
"Yeah, and I'm Kira," Light said with a laugh, although it didn't seem easy for him to joke about it.
Asami nodded a little. "It's not impossible."
Light looked at her in shock. "You don't honestly think that I'm Kira, do you, Asami?"
"Of course I don't, Light. I just said that it's not impossible. You're around the right age."
"Could you tell me what you mean by that, Asami-san?"
What was with that guy? He must be testing me, she thought. There's no way that L hasn't been able to figure out what my family already has. But why?
She swallowed. "My brothers and I have been talking about it for a while now, Kira's age. We've determined that he's probably very young, high school or university student maybe, because he's hopeful enough to try and create an ideal world by killing off criminals. An adult, even my brothers' age, wouldn't think of doing that, at least not without killing people for their personal gain first. But someone too young, like a junior high student, might kill someone they don't like, and then never kill anyone else because they'd be too scared. Only someone right in the middle would be capable of being a mass murderer like Kira."
"Also very good. Yagami-kun used the phrase, "affluent child", which sums up what you just said." The intimidating eyes left hers to stare down the streets at a pair of approaching headlights.
"Now I have a question for you, L."
He looked back at her without answering verbally. "I know that you already knew those things you asked me about. Why were you testing me?"
"Please call me Ryuzaki."
"Aren't you going to answer me?"
"If you don't mind taking a drive," he said as a very nice car pulled up. "Good bye, Yagami-kun."
"Who is your friend, Ryuzaki?" An older man had stepped out of the car and opened a back door like a chauffer.
"Nakamura Asami," he answered simply, taking a step inside. "Well?" he asked. "This will be the quickest way for me to answer your question."
"A-alright."
The car was just as nice inside as out, from the leather seats to the tinted windows. The one thing out of place, well, two things really, were Ryuzaki and the green thermos in his… fingertips. When she looked closer, Asami could make out a Christmas theme to it, candy canes and Hershey kisses alternated around the plastic.
"So," he said after taking a loud slurp of whatever it was in the cup. "Before I can answer your questions, I have a few more of my own. First of all, do you mind me calling you Asami-san? I realize I shouldn't be on first name basis with you, but I called your brother Nakamura-san."
"No, I don't. You spoke to my brother personally?"
"Yes, once." Another loud sip preceded, "Second, do you believe that I'm the real L?"
The car jerked into motion before she answered, "Yes."
"And why is that?"
"Well, for one, if I were L, I wouldn't hire a scraggly young man to be my proxy. I'd pick someone, maybe English, just because of Sherlock Holmes."
"Hmm..." he said, taking another sip. "That's correct, but I don't particularly appreciate being called scraggly." Asami hid behind her hand to laugh. "And, for the record, I am English."
"Really? You don't have an accent..."
"Yes. About 25 percent, but I am English, and I lived there for about five years."
"What's the other 75?"
"Japanese, Russian and... something else. I was never entirely sure myself."
"Why are you telling me all of this? It can't be that you just feel like telling someone you've never met about your heritage. You're L, one of the most cautious people in the world."
"Why?" He stared into the small slit in the thermos. "Watari told me that in order to earn someone's trust you must build a friendly relationship. Was he correct, or should I try another approach? I didn't think a tennis match would be beneficial your case."
Asami did a double take. "You... you want me to trust you? Why?"
"After meeting you, I hoped you would join the investigation team."
"Me?"
"Yes. With your early exposure to cases like this one, only on a far smaller scale, and access to both of your brothers' intellect, you would be an excellent addition to the team."
Click, click. Asami clipped her nail with her teeth, working her way around it. "I see. You couldn't have Akira on the team, so you're going for the next best thing."
"Not true," Ryuzaki said, surprisingly calm at the accusation. "I believe that Asami-san herself would be an excellent addition to our investigation even if not for her connection to Nakamura-san, although that is why I made my decision so quickly. He speaks well of both his siblings from what I understand, and your deductions several minutes ago have shown me that his praise is not misplaced. I would like you to consider the offer seriously, and give me an answer as soon as possible. We are very short members back at headquarters, which is why I also recruited Yagami-kun, despite my suspicion."
"And that's because he's related to someone who was in the task force. Did that make me a suspect, too?"
"Briefly, yes. But we narrowed it down to those being probed within the first five days, after which Kira conducted experiments on criminals in order to eliminate the FBI agents. Your family was probed from the tenth day onward."
"Is this more information to get me to trust you?"
"So suspicious, Asami-san. You have the right to know that you are no longer a suspect, and you will be told details like that if you join the investigation anyway."
"And if I don't want to?" she said defiantly.
"It is not top secret information, so an outsider knowing this is of little consequence. And besides," he said in a tone that suggested he was smiling, although his face remained blank. "If your current job and personality profiles are accurate, you are employed as an assistant to a private investigator taking on only rape cases, and are constantly looking for a different job to make use of your degree in criminal analysis. You don't like to waste opportunity, and look down upon those who do."
He got me, she thought. He's absolutely right. There's no way I can let L asking me personally to join the task force for what's turning out to be the biggest mass murder case in history pass me by.
"You're right… I accept."