Disclaimer: No… still don't own it…
A/N: Here's the second chapter! This was extremely fun to write, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
November 5, 2004. 3:20 a.m.
Ring. Ring.
Little by little, my eyes opened slowly, dimly registering the pale grey sunlight filtering through the curtains across from me.
Ring. Ring.
Rolling over onto my side, I slowly reached over to the small digital alarm clock sitting on the nightstand, switching it off. Silence filled the room, abruptly thick and smothering.
Who was the idiot, I thought, who set my alarm at freaking three in the morning?
9:37 a.m.
I yawned widely as I stretched out on one of the long couches next to the windows of the room. It was raining today, and the uneven beat of the pulsing water irked me a little. Putting my arms behind my head I watched the other members of the Kira Task Force continue working from across the room. Despite the overall grave atmosphere, I could tell that the work was half-hearted: Mogi was staring through the window outside for increasingly longer periods of time, Aizawa was fiddling absentmindedly with his newly shorn hair—even Light could be caught playing a game or two of solitaire on his screen at intervals. And I… I all but proclaimed my uselessness today, lounging around on the sofa.
With Higuchi's arrest and then sudden death, and the emergence of a new Kira, no one was in the mood to do anything.
I suppose it was just one of those days. Easily forgettable.
Closing my eyes, I turned over in my seat as I willed myself back to sleep.
12:12 p.m.
The sound of the twin doors of the room opening woke me up with a start. It had been so quiet in here, excluding the murmuring rain outside, that the light thud had been enough to bring me back to consciousness. Groaning slightly, I sat up.
"Kurazaki-san, do you mind helping me with this?" Matsuda asked me as he entered, carrying a stack of paperwork tall enough to muffle his voice.
"Do I have to?" I said, eyeing the stack warily. "Where'd you get that from, anyway?"
"Ryuuzaki," he said miserably. With some difficulty, he dumped it on the coffee table next to my couch; it wobbled dangerously. "He told me to sort it out…"
"Ryuuzaki can do his own dirty work. Where is he, anyway? I don't think I've seen him stuff his face with cake today—now I know something's up…" I sneered.
"You don't like Ryuuzaki, do you Riko-san?" Light said from across the room, solitaire game abandoned.
"No, I don't."
Light smiled, amused. I noticed it didn't reach his eyes. "I'd forgotten… why is that?"
"I suppose there's just something immediately dislikable about a man who puts you in 50 days confinement based on a hunch," I replied lazily. "Obviously, you're a better person than I, Light-kun. Or at least you have a better temper…he still thinks you're Kira, doesn't he?"
His face darkened. "Yeah, he does."
"Ryuuzaki's too stubborn for his own good," Aizawa joined in with a surly expression. "The thirteen-day rule at the back of Higuchi's Death Note proves that Light-kun and Amane-san are innocent. I don't get why L still insists—"
Outside, thunder boomed suddenly and we all jumped.
"Damn, I hate rain," I muttered, standing up. "I'm gunna go for a walk around the building. Maybe have a heart to heart chat with the Shinigami or something…"
"Rem?" Light said sharply. "Why would you—"
"I'm joking." I rolled my eyes. "Even when we were at To-oh, you couldn't recognize a joke if it stripped naked in front of you and used you as a human pole, Light-kun."
Light grimaced, already too used to me to look scandalized anymore. The same could not be said for his father beside him.
Matsuda wore a defeated expression. "I guess I'll have to sort these out by myself, then…"
I saluted them as I left the room, closing the doors shut behind me.
The entire building seemed strangely quiet now that I was away from the warm centre of things. Eerie, even. I toddled around aimlessly for a while, not really heading in any particular direction. I lost track of time: I could have been walking for hours or minutes. Soon I found myself completing circuits: I had passed that door for the third time, gone down this hallway for the fifth…
It was a relief to be alone. Truly alone, I mean—not monitored like a strange bacteria in a petri dish by some creepy detective-slob. Now that Kira—or at least one of them—was caught, I had some lee-way in regards to surveillance… I could leave the Task Force Headquarters for short intervals, I could walk around the building without Aizawa or Mogi following me. I think they were kind of relieved too, when L had loosened up.
I grit my teeth. L.
That stupid title, that stupid letter—who the hell names themselves after the only non-existent letter in the Japanese alphabet?—that had ruined my single shot at attending a decent university. It had been a complete accident in how I had led him to suspect that I was one of the Kiras, but of course, being L, he didn't believe my frantic justifications. Yes, I was in Aoyama on the day the Second Kira contacted the First. Yes, I had known Light before that day; we went to To-oh together. Yes, I liked to eat apples—no, I did not have red hands! How was that in any way even related to Kira?
I sighed irritably. At least it would be over soon, the Kira Investigation. Now that the one of them had been caught, surely, it wouldn't be long until—
"Oh! Sorry!" I apologized to Watari, having collided with him while rounding a corner. "Are you alright?"
"Perfectly fine," he said, rubbing the top of his head. "I do apologize, I'm afraid my mind has been rather… occupied, lately."
I made a quick bow before I walked past; abruptly, I stopped.
"Um… Watari-san?" I said tentatively; I don't think I had ever properly addressed him until now. "Do you know where Ryuuzaki is? I'd like to speak to him…"
Something in the old man's face shut down and he gave me a strained smile. "I believe… he should be up on the roof, Kurazaki-san."
I blinked. "The roof? In this weather?"
Watari merely bowed before walking away. I stared at his retreating figure thoughtfully. The roof… well, he was odd enough already. What's another eccentricity to add to the pile?
I found the stairs that led to the roof after retracing several of my earlier paths and stopped when I saw L drying himself off with a towel at the top of the stairs. There you are.
"Hey Ryuuzaki!"
Slowly, he turned to look at me, his face unreadable. The hand on the towel fell down by his side and the fluffy yellow accessory shifted as he inclined his head towards me in polite acknowledgement.
I strode across the long hall, my chin held stubbornly up. I had come prepared for an argument. "I've got a bone to pick with you…"
I skipped up the stairs while L watched me warily. "Do you still think that I'm Kira?" I demanded, halting only a few steps below him.
He stared at me, black eyes boring into my own. I always hated the color of his eyes—they were such a flat, two dimensional color. Like something you would find on the painted face of a doll. "There is only a 0.002% chance that you are." he recited dully.
"Right… so… that's a no, then?"
He nodded.
"Then why am I still here?" I burst out, unable to control the sudden rush of resentment I felt. "Why am I still in this build—"
"You're free to go."
"I—what?" I must have misheard him.
"You're free to go," he repeated, this time enunciating each syllable of the sentence so that I couldn't possibly miss it. I gaped at him.
"I can… leave?" He didn't reply and I actually took a step back, reeling. I knew I should have been happy… but there was still a small, petty part of me that was annoyed to have gotten her way so quickly. And it was strange that L didn't even attempt to put up a fight…
"Okay… well, erm, thanks," I said uncomfortably. L turned away from me and resumed drying his shaggy hair. Not knowing whether to leave or not, I watched him for a moment and when I did a slight crease formed between my brows. Had he always been that… hunched? I knew he had bad posture, but today… today it seemed like the entire world was on his shoulders, and he was barely managing to carry it. I opened my mouth to say something but thought better of it.
Shaking my head, I walked down the stairs and headed for the room that held the rest of the members of the Kira Task Force, leaving L far behind me.
3:36 p.m.
I entered the room to find everyone else in the state of lethargy I had left them in earlier, although Matsuda looked considerably more distressed.
"I still have four piles to go through…" he moaned, staring at the stacks of paperwork in front of him which had appeared to have not lessened in my absence.
"Where did you go, Riko-san?" Light asked me quietly, not taking his eyes of his computer as he typed.
I sat down on one of the armchairs around the long coffee table in the middle of the room. "I went to see Ryuuzaki."
The clickity clackity sound his fingers made on the keyboard faltered as he paused. "Where was he?"
"On the roof." I snorted.
From across the room, Aizawa frowned in distaste. "Is he crazy? It's pouring out there!"
"Yeah, he looked like a drowned rat when I caught up to him. Anyway… he said that I could go. That I could leave…y'know, the Task Force."
Silence momentarily filled the room; I cleared my throat.
"That's…great, Kurazaki-san!" Matsuda said with a huge smile. "You can do whatever you want now and you can go back to To-oh!"
Light, always the perceptive one, noticed that my returning smile was rather half-hearted.
"Do you want to leave the Task Force?" he asked me quietly.
"I…"
"This is Watari."
The sudden boom of Watari's voice through the speakers and the reappearance of the white screen bearing the gothic 'W' on each of the computer monitors saved me from answering. "Ryuuzaki would like you all to congregate in the main room."
"What for, Watari-san?" Soichiro Yagami asked tiredly, taking off his glasses.
"All will be explained once you reach there." The screen flickered off.
"Typical Ryuuzaki," I muttered, standing up. "Drama queen."
"It's gotta be something important, if he's asking us to all be there," Matsuda said excitedly. "Maybe he has a lead on the real Kira!"
"Maybe…" I wasn't convinced. When I chanced a glance at Light, I saw his expression was unreadable.
We all trooped down to the double doors of the main room, and when we entered we saw Watari's insignia flashing black and white on all of the many monitors that filled the room. A quite hush fell over our small group, before Soichiro Yagami put forward the question we'd all been wondering.
"Why are we here, Watari-san?"
"Ryuuzaki has asked me to brief you on the current situation involving the Death Note." A pause. "He has received approval from the United States to use the notebook to execute a mass murderer."
There was a split second's silence, and then:
"What?" Aizawa roared, above the shouting of the others. "He's going to use the notebook? That's—"
"—insane!" Matsuda cut in. "He can't do that, it's murder!"
"He's gotta stop treating other people like pawns in his sick game—"
"—he's no better than Kira if he does this—"
The double doors opened behind us, and there he was, the devil himself, hunch backed and raccoon eyed as always. He entered the room slowly, almost unwillingly.
And with good reason too, for the Task Force converged on him before he even took two steps.
"Ryuuzaki! What's the meaning of all this? You got approval from another country to use the notebook for an execution?" Matsuda looked stunned. L swept past him, addressing the main screen with Watari's symbol.
"Watari, excellent work, thank you."
"Not at all."
"First things first: please make arrangements to transport the notebook immediately," L said, climbing into his usual crouch on the chair that sat before the screen and picking up the tiny silver fork that lay next to a half eaten strawberry shortcake.
"Yes, right away."
"Ryuuzaki, you can't do this!" I argued. "The notebook works, you know it does! Higuchi confessed to it himself! We don't need to do this!"
But he ignored my protests, absentmindedly tapping the fork he held between his thumb and forefinger on the plate in front of him. "I have to, Ariko-san…"
"What are you talking about, L?" I shouted at him. It was irrational to continue raising my voice, especially as he was only a few feet away from me but I couldn't help myself. Hot panic that seemed to have no origin was ripping through my body like a whip and his stupid double entendres weren't making anything better. Not for the first time, I wished he would speak plainly.
Much to my intense horror, I received my wish.
"I'm going to try out the notebook for real."
I reeled, taking a step backwards from him. "You…wha-?"
Aizawa barreled past me, face turning a very unpleasant shade of red. "There's no point in testing in now, Ryuuzaki, now that we know the notebook's power is real!"
"And besides, who's going to write the name?" Matsuda put in his two cents as well. "If someone starts writing in the notebook, they'll have to obey the 13 day rule and keep writing names forever!"
"It's already been worked out," L replied calmly, not looking away from the numerous screens in front of him. "The person who will write in the book is a criminal scheduled to be executed in just over 13 days. If he's still alive, 13 days after writing the name, he'll be pardoned from execution."
"But still..." Soichiro Yagami gasped out, moving beside me, his face pale with exertion,"to sacrifice a life—"
"We're very close!" I knew I wasn't the only one who jumped at the sudden rise in volume of L's voice; it was now an uncharacteristic bark. "If we work this out, the entire case will be solved!"
Abruptly the lights gave out, plunging us into a strange red darkness. Blinded, I fumbled around with a hand to grab the desk on which most of the computers in the room sat on and rubbed my eyes furiously, trying to make them adjust to the lack of light. "What the…"
Suddenly, the screens flashed white; in bold black print, the words 'All data deletion' flared on the screen.
"Data deletion?" Aizawa repeated, staring at the screens with a strange mix of confusion and dread. "What the hell's going on?"
"I told Watari… to make sure that he erased all information in the event that something would happen to him." I looked at L. He was staring at the main screen with wide eyes; it made him look strangely child-like.
"If something were to happen…" Aizawa repeated faintly.
"The shinigami…" I murmured uncertainly. "The shinigami… do you know where it is?"
"I don't see it!"
"It disappeared!"
"What's going on?"
I hid a sigh of relief when L began speaking again; though I hated to admit it, I felt better knowing that he would give orders that we would follow, that he would get control of this situation. "Everyone, the shinigami—"
My fists were already balled at my sides, ready to follow whatever he said to do. I waited for him to finish his sentence. "Hurry up, Ryuuza—"
The sound of something small and metallic hitting the floor cut me off; I looked down an saw the silver spoon L had been using clattering to stop at my feet. I blinked, uncomprehending.
"L…?"
And then he was falling, falling in front of me like something set in slow motion; I saw too clearly how his body fell through the air in a disturbingly graceful arc. No sound seemed to exist; everything was silent except for the pounding of my blood in my ears as I watched, frozen.
Somebody catch him, I thought wildly, the floor's too hard, somebody, catch him…!
Suddenly it wasn't just L, but Light falling too and it was as if somebody had turned up the volume again. They landed, inches away from my feet and I stared.
"Ryuuzaki? What's wrong?" Matsuda cried out.
Shut up! Can't you see, he's about to say something important…?
L's eyes, those great and unblinking painted eyes that I despised with every fiber of my being, slid closed. It occurred to me that I had never seen them shut before. He could almost have been asleep…
"Hey, Ryuuzaki, what're you doing?" Light's voice was shaking. "Get a hold of yourself!"
"What is it?" Light's father asked. "What happened?"
It was only when Light began to scream that I understood.
Soichiro Yagami's face paled. "Calm down, Light!"
"It's going to kill us!" Light screamed, brown eyes wild. "Watari-san, Ryuuzaki…after them, us!"
The men in the room gasped: Aizawa stumbled backwards onto his knees, Matsuda threw up his hands over his head as if waiting for a blow that would strike him at any moment. I stared at L's corpse.
Silence fell over the room and the others gradually unfolded themselves from their protective positions, looking around in confusion.
"Dammit…Shinigami, where are you?" Light was shouting again, his hands still clutching onto L's shoulders. "Show yourself!"
Soichiro looked shocked; I doubted he had ever seen his son lose it quite this badly before. "Light!"
Light stood up, leaving L's body on the ground, and took shaky, unsteady steps towards the center of the room. He didn't even seem to notice the others now, speaking only to a presence he alone could sense. "I know you're up to something! Show yourself!"
He slammed the twin doors open, and began to run in the hallway outside. His father and Matsuda followed him. Of the people left behind, Aizawa was the first to break the ensuing silence.
"I'm going to search too," he said heavily. "Mogi-kun, take care of him. Riko-san—"
"I'm coming with you."
Aizawa faltered, as if debating whether or not to let me, but he nodded. "Okay. Let's go."
4:11 p.m.
We stopped at a room I'd never visited before: it was quite small, longer than it was wide, with grey metal shelves that lined the walls. The voices issuing from inside told us that the others were already in there.
"Whatever happened… I will definitely avenge Ryuuzaki," Light was saying as we entered. "For the sake of Watari and the other victims—"
I nudged Aizawa. "Is that sand?" I asked quietly, nodding at strange, glittering mound in the center of the room.
Aizawa shook his head slowly. "I don't know."
"Light!" Soichiro gasped, staring at his son. He must have said something shocking again. Beside me, Aizawa nodded fervently.
"That's right, Light-kun. We will avenge them."
"Yes, but we'll definitely be killed!" Matsuda said, looking up at the others from his kneeling position by the pile of sand. "Wasn't this an omen?"
"Matsuda-san, if you're too afraid of dying, then please leave this team," Light's voice was cold, emotionless. "Only people willing to risk their lives to catch Kira should work here."
"He's right," I spoke up suddenly; everyone swiveled around to face me. "Only people willing to risk their lives should stay in the building… that's why I have to get as far away from here as possible."
"Kurazaki-san!" Soichiro Yagami exclaimed. "You can't leave now, not when Ryuuzaki just…!"
"I don't wanna die, Yagami-san!" I said sharply. "You all have your reasons to stay here. You all believe in justice. Me? I didn't even care about whether or not Kira was doing the right thing by killing criminals until I was forced here by L!" I took a step back, shaking my head. "I might've been uncertain about leaving earlier, but I've made up my mind now. I don't wanna end up like Ryuuzaki. I want out. I want to leave the Task Force."
Light nodded curtly. "That's fine, Riko-san."
"Light…!"
"We can't force her to stay, Dad. Ryuuzaki himself said she was free to go, and she's made here choice." Soichiro faltered and then sighed. "Matsuda-san, do you mind calling a cab for Riko-san? It would be best if she left today."
"S-sure, Light-kun…" Throwing one last glance at me, Matsuda left the room.
"I guess I won't be seeing you at To-oh anymore, Light-kun?" I said.
He shook his head with a tight smile. "No, I don't think so."
4:28 p.m.
"Your cab's here, Kurazaki-san."
"Thanks Matsuda-san." I stood up and looked around at the others in the room, who were watching me go. "You all take care, alright?"
No one replied, then Soichiro gave a strained smile. "You too, Kurazaki-san."
I waved as I left the room, glad to be rid of the gloomy atmosphere. I walked with Matsuda without speaking to the building's exit. His silence did not bother me; I was glad to have some time to take one last look around the building. This was the hallway where I once snapped at L for leaving cake everywhere. That was the room I where I punched L in the face for the very first time in a fit of adolescent anger… I had expected him to retaliate, like he did with Light, but…
"I'm sorry, Riko-san."
That was the bathroom I cried in after he had said that to me.
It annoyed me very, very much that all my memories of the place seemed entirely composed of L. I wouldn't have a single good memory to take back home with me. I oughta find him right now and—
"Oh!"
Matsuda glanced at me from two steps down; I lingered at the top. "Kurazaki-san?"
I'd forgotten. How could I have forgotten he was dead? "It's nothing."
To my horror my eyes a stinging, prickling sensation erupted from behind my eyes; my vision blurred, colors swam in front of me. I refused to blink, to wipe the moisture away—I can't let Matsuda see that I'm crying, was my stupid, prideful reasoning. Especially over Ryuuzaki. I could make it down these stairs without seeing them, I just have to hold onto the railing—
My foot slipped and my hand clutched at empty air before I remembered that the staircase leading to main entrance didn't have a bar to hold onto. And then I was falling too.
"Kurazaki-san!"
My head collided painfully with the cold ground and I blacked out.
A/N: It was fun to write Ariko's personality shift here: she's more cocky, more arrogant than in the first chapter.
So, things are slowly revealing themselves...
Thanks for the reviews! I think most of your questions were answered in this chapter, and if not, they'll probably be answered in the future ones…More detail will occur regarding certain events the more times she replays.
Also: Ariko knew Light because he went to To-oh with her. They aren't friends, but she remembered his face from one of her classes. Actually, she should still be probably calling him 'Yagami-kun' but she doesn't really care about etiquette regarding her fellow students…
Thanks for reading! And please review, seriously…