The Good Academic

-1-

Chemical Paper

" My name is Misa Amane."
" Yes. I'm aware of that."
" Do you have a smoke?"
" You don't smoke Miss Amane."
" Well, ain't that a shame."
" Miss Amane...you are -"
" - Testing your patience?"
" No. Digressing."
" Well I'm here in this shit and I'm blindfolded like bondage gear – ain't that pretty!"
" Miss Amane you -"
" Get me the fuck outta here!"
" Miss Amane do you know you are in serious trouble?"
" No Shit Sherlock!"
" Miss Amane you must answer my question?"
" Or what? You'll rape me?!"
" Miss Amane are you Kira?"
" What the fuck is that?!"
" Miss Amane just answer the question."
" If I was fucking Kira – would I get fucking caught easily?!"
" That's probability. Fate only favours the bold. Fate also favours chances."
" This isn't literature class! Or is it for you pervert! You want me to pee! I'll do it!"
" Miss Amane – that's not necessary -"

There was pee on the floor.

Misa was crying.

" You bastard let me out! I pissed for you didn't I!"
" I didn't want that Miss Amane. Watari please clean up Miss Amane."
" Don't! Don't! Don't Touch me!"
" Watari!"
" She's trying to bite off her tongue L!"
" So, you are L Bye Bye Mother fucker! So you like raping girls on the side?! Fuck you!"

Watari handled the situation by gagging the girl called Misa Amane. He administered more drugs. Misa's resolve was fading. She was crying. Where was Light? Didn't he care anymore? - Couldn't he care?

Light got her into this. She hated him. If he only didn't tell her to come by that day.

~/~

" Misa."

" You, your voice..."

" Misa – I don't want to hurt you like this."

" Stop it, please..."

" Misa – I...I don't want to..."

" Please...stop...Light..."

There was a pause. " Do you still love Light?"

" Why do you wanna know?"

" Misa...why did you do this?"

" Please stop...it's hurting..."

She felt someone hug her. She felt herself cry. The person hugged her more tightly. Then she felt tears not her own land on her face.

" You are...Ryuga...aren't you – are you L as well?"

" Misa, I -"

" Why are hurting me and crying too?! Do you enjoy this you sadomasochistic bastard!"

" No, Misa. I do not."

" Then – why?"

" Misa, I'm taking it off..."

The blindfold was gone and soft light and darkness penetrated her eyes. The pressure of the fold made them sensitive – they ached despite the low light. Soon, they adjusted and in front of her was none other than the black-haired, quirky young man she knew from Todai University. Light's classmate. Also L. Light must have known. That bastard betrayed her.

" Ryuga Hideki– no..." she snarled.... " L – The magnificent!"

" Misa..."

" You Bastard!" she growled.

" Misa – please I know you are the second Kira..."

" You have no proof..."

" That shinigami, Jealous – he's told me."

" Why?"

" I don't know."

" You are lying – what the hell are you saying – what are you saying?! I was going along with it because I seriously think you are crazy L!"

" Isn't this your Death Note?" he picked up a black book. Opened it. Misa saw all the names of the people she had killed glaring at her in her handwriting. She had to find a way out.

" Ok, L. I confess I'm a little twisted. I follow the actual Kira's -"

"You are caught now – do you see it is written clearly how each one shall die and at what time too in some of them – surely, you don't think me a fool."

Usually, her intelligence saved her. But she had been weakened by those awful drugs. She hate him.

" I hate you." Misa started crying.

" I know. You have ever right too..."

" I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU BASTARD!"

" Misa. Please tell me why did you – why did you do this?"

" Because I had to beat Light! I had to – he was better than me in finding that killer out properly! Also – because I wanted to – because justice failed me – I had to..."

"Misa...." L, the emotionless, the indifferent, the stoic – the seemingly apathetic came forward and before she knew it he wiped her tears away. " I love you."

" What is this – some ploy..." she knew it was true but he was her enemy.

" Misa – I'll untie you now, please get some sleep."

" L – I'll kill myself."

" No. Don't. Just Confess."

" What are you a priest?"

" Misa – do you know that you will die and go to MU."

" What's that?"

" Nothingness."

" What, no heaven or hell?"

" Misa. Didn't anyone tell you anything?"

" When I found the Note I just used it because Jealous told me to."

" Misa, you must tell me the truth."

" Why?"

" Because Jealous says that's the only way he can try to save your soul."

~/~

" Why Misa?"

" Like I said competition with Light..."

" Are lives just competition Misa?"

" Those weren't lives – they were unlabelled shits that needed to be killed."

" Misa..."

" You call yourselves justice yet you guys didn't sentence the people who killed my parents. Why, 'cause he was the son of some old fart judge? Light got him. If I had the Note before I could have killed him before."

" Misa..."

" Light understood me. Do you know he was the first guy to truly love me? I never would have considered him before but...that's changed now...I want him..."

" Misa – do you love Light?"

" I'll try to..."

" Misa – why did you do all this?"

" You know why L! I couldn't take it anymore!"

" I know society failed you."

" No shit – and it was going to keep on failing me...it was such a fucking bastard."

" I -"

" I wanted to keep on competing with Light. It would be like old times. Sometimes he would win and sometimes me. Even he knew that."

" Misa stop."

" It'll be like old times – before Momma and Daddy went away – it'll be the same..."

" Misa please stop."

" I want to go back to those times...I know I can..."

" Misa please stop!"

" You shut up you deceptive mother fucker what do you know?!"

" Misa – those were people you hurt!"

" REALLY! OH WOW L AREN'T YOU MOTHER TERESA! YOU KNOW THEY WERE KILLERS TOO!"

" YES – BUT THAT DOESN'T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO -"

" YES ONLY THE LAW – WHOSE FUCKED UP LAW?! MY PARENTS – THEY WERE INNOCENT!...YOU KNOW THAT! THEY WERE INNOCENT! THEY WERE INNOCENT!"

Misa kept on repeating those last lines until all that remained were her howls and sobbing. L approached Misa and hugged her tightly. There was a crimson light in front of her eyes – scarlet as the blood that would blind her for life or was it that light now? Was it that light become so physical that she couldn't move. Couldn't stop crying. She remembered. It is hard to remember.

" Misa. I know they were killers but you are killing them for some odd competition and Light- he's become just another murderer."

" No. That's not true."

" Yes – it is Misa. Deep inside I think you always knew it."

" No. That's not true. He got rid of the man who killed my parents..."

" No Misa it's true."

" NO HE GAVE ME JUSTICE! HE LOVES ME!"

Her voice became coughs as she struggled to breathe. Panic. What was real? What was a lie? She was already so tired...

" MISA! MISA! WATARI COME HERE!" Lawliet kept on grabbing Misa but her vision was now becoming pitch red – they are wrong – she thought so – it's never back it's red – after all the brain is not hollow – it's red and gooey and full off – last thought – misery...

~/~

" Misa, Misa, are you feeling better?"

" I'm thirsty you sadomasochistic bastard..."

" Have some water – wait don't drink too fast..."

" Why did you hurt me...don't you care?"

" I had to. Not that I wanted to. I had to do some mean things."

"Spoken like a true abusive boyfriend..."

" You know what I mean."

Lawliet was sobbing. Misa was surprised. He never cried. She knew that. What was it -
" What are you do? Emotionally blackmail me?"

Lawliet broke down. " Everything I have done to you is wrong!"

" Yes. I'll never forgive you."

" Misa. Please forgive me...You know I would never had done this to you truly on purpose if -"

" - if, things were different. I know But it still hurt."

" Misa."

" I can't forgive you now."

" Alright – don't if you don't want to. I accept it."

" What are you doing playing mind games. You are good at that aren't you L." she stressed his alphabetic name – stressed her sarcastic chuckle.

To this L replied: " No Misa. I deserve to be hurt because I have hurt the one I had loved."

To this Misa stated: " L – do you really think you are justified to hurt me? Or, had you done it for the sake of just capturing me? Light wouldn't have hurt me. You did. How could you? But, then again – I understand: I am second Kira – NO – I am Kira. I and the one called Light have become one perfect being of justice – the being called Kira – we had surpassed trivial things such as gender or sex and become the absolute pillar of justice. Accept it L – you cannot rid the world of evil as we can."

Lawliet still had tears in his eyes – but then he shouted: " The Misa Amane I know does not truly believe this! You are just blinded by your sadness and you know it yourself!"

Misa screamed: " Better then to blind the ones who was the one who blinded me! L – life is not just a game – justice is not a game where you must only win! I know right and wrong aren't absolute but you know that it's more than just solving something!"

" I know that now Misa but you know it too – you are just too sad."

" Lawliet – how can you cure the world of evil?"

" There's no 100% vaccine for evil deeds – you and I are both evil in our own ways as well. We are not angels, prophets or their disciples and followers to be subtracted from evil – and if you don't believe in them then let's say we are not like the universe as it was before: pure."

" No. I don't completely agree. To get rid of evil you must feed it the same evil it unleashes."

" Yes. I agree. But not like this Misa – it's too absolute – the same way criminals do their crimes: without true logic or mercy..."

" Are you going to be Portia or the anti-Faustian and preach to me, The Shylock, The Faust how the quality of mercy surpasses that – you forget Portia was a deceiver to – she made Shylock a Christian – a man who loved Judaism and the friends of Faust who knew of his soul being bartered probably though he deserved to be quartered by the demons! They might have been jealous as he slept with the Helen-look-alike!"

" But Faustus was killed and Shylock's injustice was the record of the story's map of the ill-treatment of religious sovereignty – nothing changes those things."

" L, Lawliet, do you believe in God?"

" I do. Because it's not worldly – the concept of God – but I hadn't always. I only started recently. I'm religious but I had always felt higher powers around and Jealous confirms this to me; they have someone above their king."

" I wasn't sure if I did anymore; I try to ignore Light saying that he is Kira – god of the new world. To me there was no new world. It would be the same. Either we become immortal or pass the legacy of Kira to two others or three others like us. As one person isn't enough to carry out such a task. You see L there is no Utopia in this world. No world with absolute Justice. So my alternate would be to...never mind..."

" Misa – no – you were going to...?"

" Yes. I was going to order Jealous to do it."

" Why...Misa, you....you..."

" Because I'm the good academic Lawliet..." she smiled brightly with the mania fury of sadness within, raging, " That's the perfect possible calculation."

" How did you know that Light had a Death Note?"

" After he killed my parents' murderer – I wanted to desperately find out who Kira was."

" And...?'

" Well there was two options a) Be meticulous and calculative or b) Be sloppy and illogical – the latter would mean I must trace around possible candidates for Kira's executions hoping to see him in action or figure out a pattern. That's how the police would go about it - before you came around – however, I decided to see how Kira kills people but study his patterns to see how any of them could have interconnectivity. Of course, the initial crimes did have a pattern – they were all heartaches but as we see in profiles and fiction – the killer evolves and matures eventually. Light may be a genius but he was no exception to the rule. So I plotted it out. The killers died in various ways but there was one motive: to kill them. I wonder how he could access the targets so easily. I drew out maps of strategies – some of them made sense others became too odd to function. Then I felt what if there was no plan of approach in the traditional sense – or, one would say expected sense. I felt it's like leaving out a bowl of water and seeing it dry up after gradual periods of times – of course water evaporation is the phenomenon that is the most natural thing that would happen – but what if there was a 0.2% factor that a cat or a dog spilled the water or drank it. This hidden 0.2% started to allure me and I decided that the out-of-the-box approach would be the best thing. I had never doubted the paranormal or the supernatural – let's just say even a small gust of wind can spill all the water out and then some person without your knowledge can replace the bowl exactly where it was so you won't initially know the difference.

So, I was meticulous. I decided that superfluous details may not be superfluous details. I tried to find out any connections beside the obvious or something that was so obvious that it escaped me – like all of them are killers who may not have committed the same crime but what else was there? That's when I came up with Lind. L. Taylor – the one who impersonated you as L – that man who was killed on TV. Before that appearance on TV Kira had not known that he existed. That's because there was only a news post about him in a very old archive and even the police records didn't have much on him (yes, I did some side hacking jobs to some police sites) but then I wondered why this person didn't have a record. I found out from that archive (which was actually a soon-to-be-banned site of a relative of Taylor's) that Taylor last wish was that before he died, for that one month he's in high security prison – he wanted his documents backed up and done with for a while officially. The reason: his niece and his son were computer hackers attempting to locate him so to prevent anyone coming for him, either for assassination or rescue, he wanted to be isolated. He was star witness to some mafia lord and they needed information from him so they agreed temporarily so when his files were backed up he wasn't the hot sensation. Now, it was hard to find that archive – and it was banned by the police as well so it was only a momentary cursory but I got that information. So, if Kira was romantically attached to hacking computer files and the media than there was a 22% chance that he missed that news – eliminating the prospects of data feeds and such. Well, the theory seemed sustainable. Now, media and hacking were just extensions. What was the true source of his power? I realized that Lind. L. Taylor died after his name was announced – after his face was shown on TV. These were the prime pieces of the puzzle but what was the main body. I figured it was something not truly terrestrial in the physical sense and I was right. After a few days I was attacked by a man – before I could kill him with my pocket-knife nor else I would be killed that man died of a heart attack. He was just random man Jealous had chosen to kill – or, as he said – he loved me enough to kill him. But, he stated the death of Shinigamis is by love but he did not die. Jealous said that he had done a favour for the king thus he cheated death. By that time, I realized Kira had a death note as well and that was the source of his power, his justice – his everything."

L looked at her – amazed. " Misa. You thought it through and everyone thinks you are a dumb blonde."

" That's all part of the plan L."

" What plan was that?"

" I've told too much for one day. I'm tired – your turn."

" Ask your questions."

" How did you know?"

" Jealous."

" How? Why?"

" Jealous had to do it Misa."

" Why? Why?"

"Misa – Jealous might die soon."

" WHAT?!"

Misa got up with a jerk and was troubled when she heard it - "NO! NO! WHY?!"

" Misa! Calm Down!" L rushed to her as she was losing strength and collapsing, "Misa!"

" L, did you kill Jealous?" Misa looked at him.

" No, Misa. I would not do that."

" Then why...?"

" He just told me there is a hearing concerning him in the Shinigami realm and that his fate would be decided in that hearing."

" They have a court system?"

" Well not entirely but something akin to it. He decided to confess as he doesn't trust Light."

" That's not for him to decide." Misa was extremely angry.

" Misa – I know what you done wasn't right and I know you know too."

" Well, all I can have is the death penalty or imprisonment for life."

" Yes."

" So...? I know this already."

" Misa – I can help you."

" What?"

" Misa – you may have known you were doing the wrong thing but I think you were blocking it out. I know a lot has happened to you."

" I'm under a post-traumatic influence..."

" Yes. Kind of but truthfully Misa – you aren't truly evil."

" So...what...?"

" Listen Misa. If you help us – they might lighten your sentence."

" I'm not betraying Light."

" I know Light might know by now he's in deep trouble."

" So – there are forces with him you can't fight."

" Well – even if you are a witness it's enough in this case. Light has an occult, dangerous object helping him out so there are more that's needed to be done. I know for some time though he might stop killing -"

" - the innocent..." Misa chuckled sarcastically.

" No. Killing the masses who are his prey."

" You can't get Light."

" No I can – but, he's got the note and he's growing stronger day by day."

" Yes. That's Light."

" So were you."

" I told you we are perfectly balanced."

" Misa – I need your help to stop Light."

" Why...?"

" Because Jealous says that Light can get other Shinigamis to join him..."

" Why?"

" Misa, you know Light has a god complex..."

" As I said before – I never really cared..."

~/~

Author's Note: I was slightly inspired by The Silence Of The Lambs, CSI and an alternate ending web comic of Death Note I guess. Well I hope you like the fic a lot.